Hitched
by Rhyfeddol
Summary: It's been four years since Cinder's plan was foiled, and she's all but forgotten by Yang and her team. But when she escapes from prison, will she succeed in exacting revenge on Yang? When old faces return bringing new information about the villain, Team RWBY will certainly have their work cut out for them. (Sequel to Crushed; read it first to get the context of this story)
1. New Beginnings

**Cinder POV**

Four years. Four fucking years. That's how long I've been stuck in this hellhole, unable to summon so much as a toothpick. Not that I'd need one, considering how little they feed me in here. I would have thought Emerald and Mercury would have gotten me out by now, but _no_, they've left me to rot. If I ever get out of here, I'll have my revenge on Yellow. I will kill everyone she's ever cared about, slowly, right in front of her. I will destroy her precious school, then I will flay her alive.

As these thoughts go through my mind, the slat at the bottom of the door opens and my usual tray of bread and water is pushed through. This time, though, there's also a note. _Get back._ I press myself against the wall furthest from the door as it gets blown off its hinges, revealing my cohorts and the four students they hired all those years ago.

"We won't have much time," Emerald tells me as alarms sound. The glyph that has been inhibiting my abilities for so long suddenly vanishes and I feel the lethargy leaving me. I exit my cell and see several armed guards at the end of the hallway.

"Stop!" one of them yells. "Get back in your cell! We're authorised to kill!" Mercury gets ready to attack them, but I hold an arm out and stop him.

"And I don't require authorisation to kill," I tell the guards as I summon a fireball. I throw it at one of them, and the heat causes his armour to melt and his skin to blister. As he screams in agony, I summon two daggers and throw them at two other guards, piercing their jugular veins. They clutch their necks as they fall, dead before they hit the floor.

"P-p-please…don't kill me," the last guard begs. "I'll do anything!"

"War is not without casualties," I tell him, walking towards him. "And a war is coming." As I reach him, I grab his head and twist, snapping his neck. I step over his lifeless body, followed by my compatriots. We're met with more resistance as we exit the prison, but the guards are no match for us. By the time we're outside, not a soul is left alive in the building.

"What now?" the leader of Team CRDL asks.

"I take revenge on the yellow bitch. Then we finish what we started," I reply.

"You want revenge?" Mercury asks. "I happen to know something _very_ interesting concerning the yellow one." As he shares his knowledge, my eyes widen.

**Yang POV**

Today's the day. Today, Blake and I are getting married. Since the attack four years ago, she and I have been practically inseparable. Along with Ruby and Weiss, we graduated from Beacon with high honours and it wasn't long before we were being offered some of the most prestigious missions in the kingdom. It was with my payment for one of those missions that I bought the ring I proposed to Blake with. I remember the event clearly.

_We're sitting in Blake's favourite seafood restaurant, and I'm very aware of the small box on the inside of my jacket. She has no idea why I took her out to dinner tonight. A bottle of champagne sits on the table between us, almost empty. Truthfully, I drank most of it to calm my nerves. The beautiful Faunus opposite me seems to be enjoying herself; she's been smiling jovially all night. _

_ "Anything else, ladies?" the waiter asks as he removes our cleared plates._

_ "Baked Alaska," I request. He nods and leaves. When he return with our dessert a few minutes later, neither Blake nor I have said anything but we're holding hands across the table. The waiter frowns as he sets the dish between us but says nothing._

_ "Enjoy," he tells us as he leaves again. Blake and I finish the Baked Alaska fairly quickly and share a short kiss, oblivious to the stares from the other patrons of the restaurant. I pay the bill soon after and exit the establishment with Blake, holding her hand the whole way. A short walk later, we're in a park which is empty aside from us. I put my hand on the back of Blake's head and kiss her softly. Due to the solitude, this kiss lasts much longer. After four years, I know every contour of the girl's lips, but I still love every second I spend kissing them. _

_ She presses her lips to mine slightly harder and gently nibbles on my lower lip before we separate. Trying to slow my now racing heartbeat, I reach inside my jacket and pull out the box as I drop to one knee. I hold it out as Blake gasps._

_ "Blake Belladonna, you are the best thing that's ever happened to me and I want to be with you as long as I live. Will you marry me?" I ask, opening the box. Her eyes fall upon the twenty-four karat diamond ring presented to her and her hands shoot to her mouth. A solitary tear falls from her eye as she answers, "of course I will." I push the ring onto her finger before standing up and kissing her again, much more passionately this time. She responds in kind, slipping her tongue into my mouth and fighting for dominance. I let her win, immensely happy that she accepted._

"Yang? We have to go," Ruby's voice draws me out of the flashback. After some persuasion, she agreed to wear a dress and be my maid of honour. The sight of her reminds me of that night at the dance, oh so long ago, when she couldn't walk in high heels. The memory makes me smile as I follow her to the limo that will take us to the venue. When I enter, Coco and Nora are waiting, a bottle of champagne already open.

"I need that," I tell them, taking the bottle and drinking straight from it. They don't protest.

"Nervous?" Coco asks.

"Fuck yes," I reply. "Give me a Deathstalker any day; it's nothing compared to a wedding."

"You'll be fine," Nora tells me. "If anyone tries anything, I'll break their legs for you!"

"You won't need to do that, Nora," Ruby chimes in. "Yang, we just need to make one more stop."

"Why?" I ask, confused. "I only have two bridesmaids. Who else are we picking up?"

"You'll see," she answers. A few minutes later, the limo is idling outside Jaune Arc's apartment building. I'm about to ask what's going on when the Boy Wonder himself exits the building in a white dress. Luckily for him, there's no one around to gawk as he enters the limo.

"Hi," he says. "Pyrrha, Ruby and Nora convinced me to be your surprise third bridesmaid." Coco and I crack up as the limo starts moving. To Jaune's credit, he rocks his outfit shamelessly. There isn't even the slightest hint of a blush on his face throughout the journey.

"You look good," Coco tells him when she can speak. She then immediately starts laughing again. It's not long before we arrive at the venue. Blake insisted on a low-key affair with only close friends and family. On the other hand, the reception has been planned entirely by yours truly. It's gonna be the party to end all parties, the kind where you wake up the next day and don't even know what happened. The champagne bottle is empty as we exit the limo and I'm feeling slightly giddy from the alcohol.

A short time later, I'm walking down the aisle, Taiyang by my side. Blake's standing at the altar, smiling wider than I've ever seen her smile. I see that she chose Velvet and Pyrrha to be her bridesmaids, while Weiss is her maid of honour. Blake really is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and I've looked in a mirror every day of my life. It's hard to believe that starting today, I'll be spending the rest of my life with this girl. She's gorgeous, witty and a _total fucking badass_. Despite my nerves, I've never been happier. I really can't imagine a better way to spend my time. Well, maybe one, but I'll probably get round to that later. You know what they say about the night of the wedding...

After an eternity, I reach the altar. My heart's apparently trying to break a speed record in my chest, based on how fast it's beating. Everyone sits as Blake and I prepare to make our vows. After taking a deep breath, I go first.

"Blake Belladonna, I vow to never leave your side. In times of war or peace, frustration or happiness, I'll be there for you all the way. No matter what life throws at us, I promise that we'll overcome it all together. You've shown me what true love really is, and for that I will always be grateful. I love you, Blake, I always have, and I vow that I always will." When I finish speaking, I hear a sniffle behind me. I don't turn to look, but I figure Ruby's probably crying.

"Yang Xiao Long, you were my beacon in a storm. My life was perpetual darkness, every second consumed by hate for society. Until I met you. You changed all that. You're like my own personal sun, eternally warming my soul, and I love you for that. I swear to never leave you, come hell or high water. You are everything to me, and I will always love you."

"Do you, Yang Xiao Long, take Blake Belladonna to be your lawful wedded wife?" the priest asks me.

"I do," I reply, sounding much more confident than I feel. I'm amazed that I could even form the words.

"And do you, Blake Belladonna, take Yang Xiao Long to be your lawful wedded wife?"

"I do," Blake replies, smiling wider than ever.

"Then I now pronounce you married. You may kiss the bride." As soon as he's done, Blake throws her arms round my neck and kisses me with raw emotion. Nora squeals behind me as everyone else in attendance stands and applauds. After the noise dies down and. Blake and I are no longer attached at the lips, Weiss steps forward.

"Congratu-" she starts to say, but gets cut off by a sudden explosion. My first thought is that Nora planned another surprise for me that went wrong, but then I hear a familiar voice that makes my blood boil.

"I hope we're not late to the ceremony," Cinder announces, stepping through the hole in the wall. I notice that she's followed by Team CRDL and her two partners in crime.

"Get. The fuck. Out of here," I tell her slowly, fighting to keep my voice level.

"What do you plan to do? You can't fight in that," her grey-haired partner tells me, gesturing at my dress.

"Yang! I'll break their legs!" Nora yells. Before she does anything, however, there's a small flash and a new figure is suddenly standing between Cinder and I. It's a woman with long black hair almost as long as mine. She's wearing a black dress with a red girdle-belt and what appear to be red gauntlets on her forearms. A furry bit that looks like a wolf's tail comes out of the side of the skirt of her dress. There's a sheath on her waist that looks like it also contains different types of Dust for whatever weapon's inside. I soon find out that said weapon is a katana, because the woman unsheathes it and faces Cinder, not saying a word. Cinder gets a fearful look and flees the scene, closely followed by her companions.

"Who-?" I start to ask, but the woman walks off, probably to verify that Cinder is actually gone. She returns a couple of minutes later, and I see that she's wearing a Grimm mask like the White Fang used to wear, only much more intricate, and resembling a Nevermore. "Who are you?" I ask again. The woman takes off her mask, revealing a face strikingly similar to my own. The major difference, aside from her hair and the fact that she's clearly older than me, is that her eyes are crimson, the colour mine go when I'm angry.

"Yang. You've grown so much. I have a lot of explaining to do," she answers, smiling.

**A/N: Here it is, for everyone who read Crushed! The sequel! If you haven't read Crushed, the first arc of this probably won't make any sense, so you should probably go do that. To those who have, yeah. Four-year timeskip. Kinda cliché, but oh well. Cinder may have seemed a bit OOC, but that's understandable. She's spent four years in prison because Yang beat the ever-loving crap out of her in the last story, so she's pretty bitter, to say the least. Anyway. Wedding bit probably sucked. I've never been to a wedding, so cut me some slack. Also, I didn't write Yang's vows; my friend did. I wrote Blake's, though. I'm keeping this story M-rated, because it leaves options open if I want to write smut or whatever. If there is smut, it won't be plot-relevant and I'll warn you so you don't have to read if you don't want to. So, if you don't know who showed up at the very end, there's something wrong with you. My question to you is this: what is her relation to Yang? That'll be answered in the next chapter, so speculate if you want. Or don't, whatever. Anyway, thanks for reading, leave a review and follow/favourite if you want.**


	2. A Story With a Happy Ending

**Yang POV**

Somewhere behind me, Taiyang gasps.

"Raven?" he asks incredulously.

"Taiyang. It's been too long," the woman, whose name I figure is Raven, replies. "How've you been?"

"Fine, I suppose. Where have you been?"

"I'll explain everything, but not here. Let's get somewhere more private," Raven says.

"Will someone please tell me what the _fuck _is going on?" I exclaim forcefully.

"Yang. My name's Raven Branwen. I'm your mother," Raven tells me. I take a moment to register that. Then I take another moment to register it some more. When my brain finally processes what this woman just said to me, she and Taiyang have walked away and Blake is gently tugging on my arm. The limo that was supposed to take Blake and I to the reception is waiting outside, so the four of us enter and I tell the driver to take us to the apartment Blake and I share. During the ride, there's a very tense silence as I stare at Raven, not sure how to feel about her sudden appearance. The silence continues until we arrive at the building, where we take the elevator to the penthouse suite. It didn't exactly come cheap, but Blake and I accumulated the funds required over several months of high-paying jobs and moved in a few weeks before we got engaged.

The apartment has three bedrooms, with an en suite in the master. That room is dominated by a king-size bed whose sheets need changed far more often than Blake and I care to admit. The master bathroom has a marble countertop below a large mirror, as well as a shower large enough for two. The two guest bedrooms are sparsely decorated, each containing an identical twin bed, closet, dressing table and lamp. The living room and kitchen are joined, with one wall made of glass. It offers a spectacular view of Vale, with Beacon visible in the distance. Sometimes we spot giant Nevermores flying over the Emerald Forest. There's a large TV in the living room, strategically placed so as to be visible from either of the two leather couches or the breakfast bar. The kitchen contains regular kitchen stuff, with more marble countertops, plenty of storage space, a microwave, a fridge and an oven with a stovetop. There's also a second bathroom for guests to use, which has basic bathroom commodities. All in all, it's a pretty luxurious place to live, and I'm glad I get to share it with Blake.

When the four of us enter, I suggest Blake and I change out of our dresses, which Taiyang and Raven agree to. We enter our bedroom while my parents make themselves comfortable in the living room.

"You okay?" Blake asks me as her dress falls to the floor. I get distracted from answering when I notice she forewent wearing a bra today. "Eyes up," she tells me when she sees me staring.

"Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you're okay. You seem really tense," she says.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't know how I feel about her showing up like that," I reply, stepping out of my own dress. "I mean, it's great that I've found her and all, but at the same time, where the hell did she go and why did she suddenly appear now?"

"It'll all make sense soon," Blake tells me before kissing me softly. I nod and finish changing while she does the same. We exit our bedroom and sit down with my parents, at which point I gesture at Raven to start explaining things.

"First off, congratulations on the wedding. I'm happy for you both," she says. "Now, you probably have some questions for me, especially you, Yang."

"You're damn right I do. Where have you been my whole life? Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?"

"I'm sorry, Yang. I had to leave you and your father. It was to protect you both." I frown when I hear this, so Raven continues, "Years ago, I discovered a conspiracy to undo everything humanity has built over the centuries. I tried to gather all the information I could, but before long, the people behind it were onto me. Because of this, I left the two of you, severing all connections with you and leaving no trace of my whereabouts. I didn't want them coming after you to get to me. Since then, I've been hiding and finding out what I could, hoping I'd be able to stop them before their plan goes into effect. I failed."

"What do you mean?" Blake asks.

"What happened four years ago?"

"Cinder. She attacked Vale, had a huge army of Grimm and the White Fang with her," I reply slowly.

"Yes. That was only phase one, and Cinder, despite what the authorities think they know about her, is only a pawn in a much greater scheme. If successful, the attack would have wiped the kingdom off the map and false evidence would have been given to the remaining kingdoms, implying that one of the others was responsible for the attack on the only non-militant kingdom in Remnant. That would have caused international tensions, which would have been increased by attacks on trade vessels and convoys and such, eventually causing a war. The ensuing negative emotions would have allowed the Grimm to multiply at an unprecedented rate, and they would have been able to devour every human and Faunus on the planet." She pauses for a few seconds.

"Luckily, you were able to stop Cinder and prevent all that from happening. I never truly believed it was over, which is why I didn't come out of hiding, but I was immensely proud when I heard about the role you played, Yang. Unfortunately, as you know, Cinder is now free, and very bitter. She failed in her task and was left broken, only to spend four years in prison. All her efforts will now be focused on taking revenge on you, after which she will attempt to continue the plan her superiors devised long ago."

"If you know all this, why didn't you go to the authorities?" I ask.

"I don't have solid proof. Besides, why would they believe the word of a woman who is supposed to be dead?"

"Fair point," I reply. "But I still don't get it? Why couldn't you give me some indication that you were alive? That you knew I was well?"

"I told you. I didn't want to be affiliated with either of you in case our enemies used you as leverage. Especially when I heard about Taiyang's second child..." At this point, she sounds upset, and Taiyang hangs his head shamefully.

"I thought I'd lost you. I moved on, I remarried, I'm sorry..." he trails off.

"I understand," Raven tells him, patting his back. "In a strange way, I'm almost glad you did. I couldn't bear the thought of the two of you waiting twenty years for me to come back." I figure this isn't the best time to bring up the fact that Summer Rose is presumed dead.

"So, if I may, why come back now?" Blake asks.

"As you know, Cinder's free. I knew she'd go after Yang, so I had to warn her of the danger she's in. The wedding business was just a happy coincidence; I got to congratulate the two of you on the day. Besides, I had been planning to come out of hiding anyway, I just used this as a reason."

"Do you know what these people are going to do next?" Taiyang asks.

"Not for certain, but I fear they're thinking..._bigger_ for their new plan. I doubt they'll want to mess around with stolen military hardware and Grimm-controlling devices. There's another problem. While the leaders of the group don't exactly get out much, a lot of their operatives are rogue Huntsmen and Huntresses."

That is a problem. Rogue Huntsmen and Huntresses are people who completed their training at Beacon or any other combat school, obtained their license then turned their talents away from their duties. A lot of them end up as mercenaries, doing any job as long as the pay is right, be it bog standard Grimm removal or more sinister objectives, like assassinations or other major crimes. If there are a lot of them working to bring about the end of the world, then that is really bad news.

We all sit in silent contemplation of this new information, wondering what it could mean for our future. Suddenly, Raven stands up and heads for the front door.

"It was lovely seeing you all, and Blake, it was nice to meet you, but I have things to attend to. Besides, I've intruded on your wedding long enough," she tells us. "Yang, we can catch up more soon if you want to, okay?"

"Sure. How will I contact you?"

"Good point," she answers, taking out her scroll and exchanging numbers with me. "See you all soon," she calls as she leaves.

"I uh- I'm gonna get going as well..." Taiyang mutters. "Congratulations. Yang, I love you. Both of you, all the best." He says all that really fast as he heads to the door. When he's gone, I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.

"Well that was eventful," I say.

"Indeed it was," Blake replies. "Should we worry?"

"Not right now," I tell her. "We have better things to do."

"Like?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Weelll, we _could _go to our reception..." I say slowly. "Or we could..._not _do that."

"What else do you suggest we do then?"

"Each other?" I suggest with a wink.

"Sounds good," Blake replies seductively.

**SMUT INBOUND! (Don't say I didn't warn you)**

Blake climbs onto my lap and brings her lips to mine in an instant. I wrap my arms round her and pull her closer as I slip my tongue into her mouth, fighting for dominance of the kiss. The battle ends when Blake takes my bottom lip between her teeth and bites on it, not hard enough to draw blood but hard enough to make me yelp a little. She pulls back and gives me a look that says _you know you love it_ before kissing me again, even more aggressively. This time, rather than letting her win the kiss, I start scratching at the sensitive spot between her ears, causing her to purr. I take the opportunity to explore her mouth with my tongue, until she pulls back and grabs my hand.

She gets up and pulls me to our bedroom, where she pushes me onto our bed and straddles my hips. She then leans down and kisses me again while pinning my wrists above my head. She alternates between swirling her tongue around my own and nibbling my lower lip while I lie there, letting her have her way with me. She then buries her face in the crook of my neck, leaving delicate kisses in the area she knows I like. I soon feel the kisses turn to nips with her teeth, each one causing me to flinch in pleasure and pain. She switches to the other side of my neck and delivers the same treatment, before gently biting down and sucking on the flesh, which is sure to leave a mark.

After thirty seconds, Blake lets go of my wrists and pulls my shirt off, exposing my ample breasts. She stares at them hungrily while feeling them in her hands, kneading the flesh. She soon latches onto my rapidly hardening left nipple with her mouth while taking my equally hard right nipple between her thumb and finger and rolling it around. She swirls her tongue around my left nipple before sucking on it, causing me to moan. She then takes it between her teeth and pulls, pleasuring me further. Meanwhile, she's apparently bored of my other nipple and moves her hand lower, letting it hover at the waistband of my shorts.

Blake moves her mouth to my other nipple as her hand snakes its way into my shorts and under my panties. She bites down, harder than before, while teasing my clit with her finger. I moan in pleasure and frustration as she stops her treatment of my nipple and plants a trail of kisses down my torso. She stops when she reaches my shorts and unbuttons them, before taking the waistband of my panties between her teeth and pulling them off. She spreads my legs, surveying my now naked form, before moving down and taking my clit between her lips, sucking on it gently. I cry out at the sudden pleasure as Blake stops sucking the little nub and swirls her tongue around it instead. She then kisses it gently before moving down and licking the area around my very wet entrance. She stays there for a while, alternating between various patterns of movement, while I moan and cry out.

Soon, I feel two fingers slide inside me and start moving in and out, occasionally stroking my G-spot. At the same time, Blake moves back to my clit and starts gently sucking on it again.

"More... Oh _fuck _don't stop," I gasp as Blake's fingers speed up. She starts sucking harder on my clit and curls her fingers to hit my G-spot with every movement. I feel myself approaching the edge, but the Faunus between my legs has other ideas. She slows down and stops sucking to look at me, smiling mischievously. I groan in frustration and push her head back down. She licks my clit and swirls her tongue around the sensitive nub while adding another finger. She increases the pace of all three fingers, curling them again as she starts sucking my clit. This time, she doesn't stop as I climax, and I drench her face with fluids while I close my eyes and scream in pleasure. I feel her lap up every drop of nectar she can find as she withdraws her fingers before lying next to me. Eyes still closed, I feel Blake's very slick digits trying to gain access to my mouth. I part my lips and taste myself on her fingers, cleaning them off.

"Good girl," Blake tells me. "Now you can repay the favour." She removes her clothes, presenting her body to me. I start with her breasts, sucking each nipple in turn. I then push her legs apart and prepare to eat her out, smelling her musk. I slowly run my tongue over her slit before parting her outer lips with two fingers. I go straight for her clit, sucking hard and gently nibbling on it. She immediately starts squirming, making it a bit hard for me to keep doing it. I then start tonguing her hole while rubbing her clit with my thumb. She moans as I circle her entrance, occasionally slipping my tongue inside. I start rubbing faster before taking the nub between my thumb and forefinger and rolling it between them. I continue licking the soaked entrance as I do this, and Blake's moans get louder and louder.

I soon pull my mouth away and put two fingers in her, pumping in and put rapidly while rubbing her clit with my other hand. I keep this up for about a minute, gradually speeding up as Blake starts screaming in pleasure. Soon enough, I feel her walls clench around my fingers as she climaxes, releasing fluid everywhere and soaking the sheets. I catch every drop I can of the delicious nectar in my mouth, swallowing it as Blake recovers.

"Wanna keep going?" I ask when she catches her breath.

"Fuck yes," she replies. We fuck like rabbits until around midnight, at which point we're both too exhausted to continue. We fall asleep in each other's arms, basking in that after-sex glow we've grown so used to.

**A/N: Done chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks to anyone who followed, favourited or reviewed. I'm assuming I gave an adequate warning in regards to the lemon. If you somehow failed to notice the bold text in caps, well, that's your problem. Anyway. Let me know how I did with the lemon, because I do want to improve all aspects of my writing. There most likely will be more smut, but it's obviously not gonna be the focus of the story, so don't worry if you don't want to read those parts. You won't miss anything important. Anyway, we learnt that Raven is Yang's mother, and why she left. In my story, that is. Obviously. We don't know anything about her canonically yet. Never mind that. So, yeah. Not much else to say here, other than that at the time of writing, I still don't know how this is gonna pan out. So, let's wrap up. Leave a review and follow/favourite if you are so inclined. Thanks for reading.**


	3. Taking Action

**Yang POV**

I wake up around one in the afternoon, crotch aching from multiple orgasms. Turns out wedding night sex really _is _best sex. It's been a long time since I woke up sore. I notice Blake isn't in bed with me anymore, but I hear water running. I sit up and stretch, looking around the room at our discarded clothes while thinking about last night. Letting out a huge yawn, I walk to the bathroom to join my wife. She doesn't hear me as I open the door and get in the shower behind her, so she yelps in surprise when I kiss her neck.

"Afternoon, Yang," she tells me, turning around. "I'm still sore, so don't get any ideas."

"I am too. You ever think we have _too _much sex?" I ask, smiling.

"When you're in love, is there such a thing?" Blake replies, pulling me in for a kiss. When she pulls back, she grabs the shampoo and bravely starts washing my hair. She's lucky I love her, because I don't let anyone else touch my mane. When she's done, she gets the soap and washes my body while I relax under the hot water.

"What do you wanna do today?" I ask as Blake shuts off the water and we step out of the shower.

"Don't know," she replies. "Should we see if we can find out what Cinder's up to?"

"Does sound like a good idea, but where would we start?"

"That's a very good question," she answers.

"And I take it you don't have any very good answers?"

"No, I do not. Maybe we should see if Ozpin or Qrow know anything," she suggests. At that moment, my scroll goes off in the bedroom. I pick it up and see my old Headmaster calling. It's not unusual for him to contact us, even after our graduation, but I'm still a bit surprised.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," I tell Blake. She cracks a smile as I answer the call.

"Good afternoon, Yang," Ozpin says from the little screen. He still looks much like the last time I saw him, somewhat shaggy silver hair, brown eyes behind his glasses and a mug of what is either hot chocolate or coffee. Or maybe tea, I've never been sure. "And congratulations on the wedding."

"Thank you, sir," I reply. "Do you need something?"

"Unfortunately, yes, there is a matter which demands your attention. You are undoubtedly aware that Cinder Fall is no longer a prisoner?"

"I'm aware, all right," I answer, trying not to think about the bitch's intrusion on the happiest day of my life.

"Well, we believe we may have tracked down some of her underlings here in the city. I'm asking you and Blake to find them and bring them in alive, assuming you don't have any more important things to attend to?"

"No, sir, that's fine. Send us the details and we'll start at once. Just the two of us?"

"Yes. It's unlikely that the rest of your team will be needed for this task. I'm sending you the location now." A few seconds later, my scroll beeps and some coordinates are displayed. "Good luck, you two," Ozpin says before hanging up.

"Bet I can prepare faster than you," I tell Blake, who heard the whole conversation.

"Honey, you're on," she replies confidently. I rush to the table on my side of the bed to grab Ember Celica while Blake gets her magnetic backplate and Gambol Shroud. I'm in the middle of loading shells into my gauntlets when I hear Blake's magazine click into place, and I look over to see that we both finished at basically the same time.

"Guess it's a draw. Good job, Blake." We leave our apartment and head downtown, towards the address Ozpin gave us. When we arrive, we see a six-storey building whose walls are made mostly of glass. Over the door is a sign proclaiming "Ember Security Co."

"So, what's the plan?" Blake asks.

"Ozpin didn't specify details, just that there would be bad guys and the targets need to be kept alive. So, we go in, beat up everyone who gets in our way and drag the fuckers to Beacon. Sound good?" I ask, not waiting for an answer as I open the door of the building. I find myself in a lobby, with white tile flooring and lots of plants. The air conditioning is keeping the room nice and cool, in stark contrast to the hot sun outside. To the left is a row of elevators and there are stairs to the right. Directly opposite the door is a reception desk, staffed by a woman in her mid-twenties. She has mousy-brown hair and wears a pretty normal receptionist outfit. She looks up when Blake and I enter, and speaks a single word into a microphone on her desk: "Huntresses."

Hearing that, I activate my gauntlets and rush forward while Blake draws Gambol Shroud and follows close behind. When I reach the desk, I raise my fist threateningly and demand, "how many people in this building work for Cinder?"

When the receptionist laughs instead of answering, I punch her desk, putting a hole in the wood. "Sweetie, didn't you see the name of the company?" she asks in a sickeningly sweet voice. "_Ember _Security."

"Of course," Blake breathes. "A synonym for cinder. Everyone here works for her."

"Yes, dear. And we employ plenty of rogue Huntsmen. I hope you're not planning any trouble."

"Tell you what. You tell us where the head office is, we get what we want, we leave, no problem. Deal?" I ask.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline," the woman says with an exaggerated frown. "Sorry."

"You don't sound sorry."

"Well, honey, I don't get paid to be honest, do I?" she asks, cocking her head to the side and making a big deal out of shrugging.

"You know what, Blake? This is a waste of time. Let's just knock her out and go through every room until we find the targets," I suggest to Blake. She shrugs, so I grab the back of the receptionist's head and slam her face into her desk. She's out cold, so Blake and I head for the stairs and get ready for the arduous task of checking every room in the building.

The first floor contains nothing but offices, full of people who neither pose a threat to us nor aid us. We tell them to leave and stop working for a criminal then head to the next floor. There are a couple of offices here, but most of the floor space is dedicated to a shooting range. Unfortunately, all the guards who had been practicing are on alert thanks to the annoying receptionist downstairs, so Blake and I are met with a dozen pistols and rifles aimed directly at us.

I sigh and fire a long-range blast. While the guards are disorientated, I charge forward and punch one in the face. He drops his pistol, so I catch it and swing it round, hitting a second guard in the most painful spot with the butt of it. He doubles over and I kick him in the face, knocking him out. Suddenly, a guard has recovered enough to try to hit me with the butt of his rifle. I block the strike with my left forearm and punch him in the chest with my right fist, feeling a rib or two break under the impact. He goes flying and hits the wall before sliding down to the floor, where he remains. Suddenly, Blake's beside me, slapping guards with the flat part of her blades. It's not long before they're all defeated, and Blake and I still haven't broken a sweat.

"I got more than you," I tell Blake as we head up to the next floor.

"Please. If you got any less, you might as well have not been here," she replies, sticking her tongue out at me.

When we reach the next floor, we find four guys with electrified batons waiting for us. Based on their expressions, they think they'll be taking us down easily. I give them a cocky smile and gesture at them to come forward while Blake takes up a stance. The guards approach and the first one brings his baton down towards my head. I dodge to the side and try to punch his side, but he redirects my arm as his buddy jabs his baton into my stomach. My Aura absorbs most of the shock, but it's still very unpleasant. Meanwhile, Blake isn't having any more luck. She's too fast for the other guards to hit, but she's having difficulty landing any strikes of her own. I decide I don't have time for these guys, so I roundhouse kick one in the face, sending him back a few feet. The other guy swings his baton at me, so I block it with my gauntlet and bring my other fist into his chest, firing Ember Celica as I do so. I hear a crunch as his ribs break and he crumples. The guard I kicked is apparently ready for more, because he rushes towards me and tries to hit my shin with his weapon. I block it with the bottom of my foot, letting the rubber sole of my boot absorb the electric shock. I then kick his face again with that foot before shooting him with Ember Celica. The force of the blast embeds him in the wall and he looks to be down for the count. I look over at Blake, who's just finished off the guys she was fighting. With the threat eliminated, we look through the various rooms. Again, our targets are nowhere to be found.

The next two floors are full of enemies who would be great at protecting people from petty criminals, but not honour graduates from Beacon. We take them down as easily as the other bad guys in the building and head to the last floor, hoping the trip hasn't been a waste of time. Luckily, we find our targets in a large office which dominates almost the entire top floor of the building. One is a well-built man of nearly seven feet wearing a business suit and holding a shotgun. The other is a more average-sized dude with a runner's frame, holding a pair of shurikens.

"Okay, you two. Our orders are to bring you in alive, but no one said we can't shoot you in the foot," I tell them as Blake raises her pistol. Neither of them seem intimidated by the threat. The big guy aims his shotgun at my face while the small one throws a shuriken at Blake. She deflects it with her cleaver while I fire a blast at the big guy's feet. I then run forward and punch his chest a few times before jump-kicking his face. He goes down, and I turn to see Blake with her katana pressed against the small guy's neck.

"I surrender," he gulps. I take out my scroll to call Ozpin and tell him the targets are secure while Blake makes sure the guy isn't hiding any weapons.

"Professor, we got the guys, but we need extraction," I tell Ozpin when he answers.

"Go to the roof. There's an airship waiting for you," he replied. "Good job." He hangs up, leaving me to drag the unconscious lump of meat to the roof while the other captive only needs an occasional prod to keep moving. Getting to the ship is an exhausting journey, even with my brutish strength, and I immediately collapse once we're on board.

"Ms Long, Ms Belladonna, are you both okay?" the pilot asks as the ship ascends.

"Yeah… I… I'm good," I reply, breathing heavily. Blake nods and sits down next to me. By the time the airship lands at Beacon, the big guy has started to stir. He looks around in a daze as the ship touches down and tries to hit me. I block his attack and punch him in the face, telling him he'd better do as we say. He nods and disembarks the airship with us.

As Blake and I escort our captives to Ozpin's office, some of the Beacon students look at us in awe, having heard tales of our exploits. We ignore them, all our attention focused on making sure the guys in front of us don't try anything. They don't, and we reach the Headmaster's office without incident. Blake knocks and the door opens almost immediately, revealing Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch. Her face is as impassive as ever as she surveys our captives.

"Let me make one thing quite clear to you," she tells them as the four of us enter. "You will answer our questions, then you will be put on trial for conspiring against the kingdom. Do you understand?" They both nod. "Good. Then sit," she orders, gesturing at the chairs in front of Ozpin's desk. When they're seated, she tells Blake and I we're no longer needed.

"I'm staying," I reply. "Their boss crashed my wedding; I'm gonna find out everything I can about her so I can hunt the bitch down."

"Very well. You may stay for the questioning. But Yang?" Ozpin says.

"Yeah?"

"You will not look for Cinder under any circumstances, at least not until I give the order," he says gravely.

"Fine. But you'd better not send someone else to bring her in," I tell him.

"You have my word that you and your team will be my first choice when the time comes," he promises.

"Good."

The questioning lasts half an hour, and all we learn is that Cinder is hiding in Menagerie, recruiting White Fang remnants, Faunus who still believe in the ideals of the organisation, despite the fact that Faunus are now practically equal and the organisation is disbanded. We don't learn anything about what she's planning to do, which frustrates me to no end. I'm half tempted to ignore Ozpin's orders and go after her, but I decide against it.

Blake and I head home, and it's after six when we get there. Too tired to cook or go out, we order pizza to eat while watching a movie. As I pay the delivery guy, Blake picks a movie and gets a blanket for us to share. After putting the pizza on plates, I join my wife – _still strange to think of it like that _ – on the couch as she starts the movie. It's a comedy flick about two guys who meet an alien who recently escaped from a military base, and they have to help him get home. Despite being plagued with clichés, it's still quite funny, and Blake and I enjoy it.

When the movie's over, Blake turns off the TV and snuggles closer to me under the blanket. I wrap my arm around her and pull her in as close as I can, using my other hand to untie her bow. Now that her ears are free, I can scratch the sensitive regions at their bases, causing her to purr contentedly. Other than that, nothing disturbs the silence as Blake and I snuggle on the couch. Eventually, comfort and the heat from each other's bodies cause us to fall asleep, and I dream of standing over the ruins of Cinder's organisation, hand in hand with Blake.

**A/N: There's chapter 3. Hope you're enjoying so far, and thanks for reading. We still don't exactly know what Cinder's up to, but she does seem to be raising an army… I'm as interested as you are to see how this pans out. I literally have no idea, I just write stuff and go with it. Planning is for people who are less lazy than me. Granted, by the time you read this I'll more than likely have written a few more chapters and I'll know exactly how it pans out, but never mind that technicality. Anyway. Fun fact: it's chapter 3 and at the time of writing, I haven't the foggiest idea what the story's called. See, I'm writing a bunch of chapters before I start uploading. Little tidbit to show just how disorganised my mind is, which is strange, given that I play three instruments, among other stuff. But that's not important. I'm just rambling now, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you so wish. Thanks again for reading.**


	4. An Unpleasant Surprise

**Yang POV**

I wake up the next day, still on the couch with Blake. The clock reads 10:00, which is really early for me, but then again, I did go to sleep pretty early last night. I carefully disentangle myself from my wife's embrace so I can begin the day. As I walk through our bedroom to take a shower, I notice we didn't make the bed yesterday. Oh well. After the night we had in it, the sheets probably need changed again.

I shower very quickly then brush my teeth and get dressed. When I'm done, I exit my bedroom and find that Blake is awake and has a cup of coffee. "Morning, beautiful," she says when she sees me.

"Sleep well?" I ask, making my way over to kiss her.

"Yeah. You?"

"Of course I did. I was sleeping with you." She rolls her eyes while reaching up to pull my face to hers. Our lips meet and I melt into the kiss.

"Going out?" she asks when we separate.

"Nah. I just needed to change. And you need to brush your teeth if we're gonna be making out any time soon."

"Oh? Who said we'll be making out?" she asks with a smirk. Before I answer, there's a knock at the door. I open it to reveal Ruby and Weiss.

"Hi. Wasn't expecting to see you two," I tell them. "Come on in." They follow me into the living room and sit on the couch, greeting Blake as they enter. "Want anything? Food, coffee?" I ask.

"No thanks," Weiss answers.

"Cookies!" Ruby exclaims. _Of course she does. Silly question, really_, I think.

"So, what's up? I take it this isn't a social call," I say, giving Ruby a large plate of chocolate chip cookies.

"What makes you say that?" Weiss asks.

"You don't do social calls, Weiss," Blake tells her. "You have something to talk to us about."

"Well, I was planning to ask how married life is, but apparently I don't do that," she says.

"Oh, it's great. Been hectic though," I tell her.

"Why?" Ruby asks.

"Well, Cinder, then a mission yesterday. Just woke up recently," I explain.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask: who was that woman who showed up and scared Cinder away?"

"Raven Branwen. My mother," I answer, prompting shocked gasps from both Ruby and Weiss.

"Your _mother_?" Weiss asks incredulously.

"Yeah," I answer. "She apparently vanished to protect Dad and I. She also said Cinder's a pawn of a much more powerful group who want to destroy civilisation."

"That's not good," Ruby deadpans.

"Way to state the obvious there, sis," I tell her. "We don't know anything about them except limited info from Raven. And I can't go after Cinder until Ozpin lets me."

"Do you even know where she is?" Weiss asks.

"Menagerie, according to two of her operatives we captured yesterday," Blake answers.

"Wait, you captured some of her operatives?" Ruby asks.

"Yeah. She's got a whole security firm as a front to make some legal money to fund whatever she's up to," I reply. "We had to fight several rogue Huntsmen to get to our targets."

"Shit. Not your average mercenaries in her employ, then," Weiss says. "Did you have any trouble?"

"Please. Have you met me?" I ask jokingly. "Blake did pretty well too."

"Really, honey?" Blake asks. "How exactly did you do better than me?"

"I got the receptionist. I got at least eight of the guys at the shooting range. We took down the same amount of baton pricks. I got the big fucker while you just threatened the small one."

"The receptionist didn't even fight. And you didn't get more than six of the shooting range people."

"You go right on telling yourself that, if it helps you sleep at night," I tell her, winking.

"Careful. You don't want to sleep on the couch, do you?"

Before I answer, Ruby loudly clears her throat. "Guys? We can see you flirting," she complains.

"Sorry," I tell her. "Anyway, anything important going on with you two?"

"Like what?" Weiss asks.

"I dunno. Anything. Mission stuff, personal stuff, whatever."

"No. We're on call for a mission though. The police want us to take down Torchwick, they're just looking for a lead on what he's up to or where he is."

"Make sure you succeed," Blake tells her. "If Cinder or someone from her group hires the bastard again, they'll rule Vale's criminal underground. That would be really bad."

"Don't worry," Ruby assures her. "He's not gonna get away."

Suddenly, there's a loud crash and the sound of many booted feet hitting the floor. I get up and look towards the door of the apartment, where a riot squad have positioned themselves.

"Yang Xiao Long! Surrender!" their leader yells at me.

"Who the _fuck _let you into my apartment?" I ask. "And are you planning to pay for the door you broke?"

"This is no time for jokes. You and your team are under arrest," the leader tells me.

"On whose authority?" I ask.

"Yang? What's happening?" Blake calls.

"The Valian Council's," the leader says smugly. "We've also been ordered to kill you if you resist."

"Good luck with that, buddy," I tell him.

"You don't even have your weapons! What do you plan to do against us? And even if you do get past us, there's another squad outside the apartment. And another in the building lobby, and another outside the building. There's nothing you can do."

I sigh and calmly walk towards him, not even a little bit worried that he might shoot me. He starts insisting that I stay back before I grab his rifle, rip it out of his hands and hit him in the face with it. Blood pours from his now-broken nose as he crumples to the floor.

"Guys! Make yourselves useful!" I yell at my teammates. Ruby and Weiss face off against the riot squad while Blake and I grab our weapons from the living room. When we get back to the hallway, every officer is on the floor, clutching a wound or a broken bone. We hear the next squad running towards the apartment so Weiss casts a glyph on the floor next to the door which will freeze anything that steps on it.

"That'll buy us some time, but what do we do?" she asks frantically.

"We can't go that way, too many enemies," Ruby says. "We'll have to jump."

"Are you crazy?! That's fifteen storeys!" Weiss yells.

"I still need to get dressed," Blake says. She disappears into our bedroom and reappears a couple of minutes later in her regular attire.

"Jumping sounds good," I say. "You have your glyphs anyway, Weiss. Just slow yourself down if you're scared."

"Go, go, go!" a male voice yells. Almost immediately, a different voice yells, "holy shit!" and I figure someone set off Weiss' glyph.

"Let's go!" Ruby yells, running towards the panoramic window and firing Crescent Rose. The glass shatters and we all jump through as an officer behind us yells at us to stop. I flip over and hold my middle finger up towards the door just before it vanishes from view. I flip back onto my front and see the ground screaming towards me. _Just like initiation_, I think. _Use Ember Celica to slow down, roll when I hit the ground. Easy. _

I do so, and several loud bangs tell me Ruby goes for a similar tactic. Meanwhile, Blake rams Gambol Shroud into the wall of the building and swings to the ground from her ribbon before retracting her weapon from the wall. Weiss hops off a series of ethereal platforms she summoned. When the four of us have landed, onlookers stare in wonder. A young boy out shopping with his parents asks if we can do it again. We ignore him and run off, paying no heed to the direction we're travelling in.

After several minutes of running, we stop in an alley and look around, making sure we weren't followed. We then spend a couple of minutes catching our breath.

"Now what?" Weiss asks.

"We're fugitives," Blake answers.

"Someone must be controlling the Council. They wouldn't order the arrest of four of the best Huntresses in the kingdom," Ruby points out.

"So what do we do?" Weiss asks.

"I'll check the news, see if they've announced anything," I reply, pulling out my scroll. I turn it on and Lisa Lavender's face is displayed on the screen.

_"This is an important announcement. The Huntresses Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long – seen here," _at this point, images of our faces are shown,_ "have been found to have ties to terrorist cells and are now considered enemies of the kingdom. Earlier today, riot squads were dispatched to bring them to justice, but were unsuccessful. The Huntresses are now on the run and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. If anyone comes forward with information leading to their arrest, they will be rewarded. Thank you for your attention." _

"Great. Now everyone thinks we're terrorists," Weiss says.

"Ozpin should be able to sort it out," Ruby tells us optimistically. "Meanwhile, we need to get out of the kingdom."

Suddenly, my scroll starts ringing, and I see Ozpin's trying to call me. I answer and see an angry and confused expression on his face.

"We didn't do anything, Professor!" I tell him.

"I know," he replies gravely. "I don't believe a word of what the public's been told. But this bodes ill…"

"What do we do?" Ruby asks.

"Well, Miss Rose, the best thing would be to break our enemies' power over the Council and make them revoke the arrest orders on the four of you, clearing your names. But that is easier said than done."

"So you agree that someone else is controlling them?" Blake asks.

"Oh, yes," Ozpin replies. "Where matters like this are concerned, they consult me first. You are my former students, after all. I knew nothing of this until now."

"We could ask to see the charges," Weiss suggests.

"No, they'd kill you on sight. Or try to, anyway," Ozpin points out. "It pains me to say it, but you will have to find Roman Torchwick and… _convince _him to assist you."

"Why?" I ask.

"We have information not even the police have."

"Wait, who's 'we'?" I ask.

"Myself, your father, your mother, your uncle, the rest of the Beacon staff. Need I go on?"

"No, I see the point. Continue."

"Thank you. As I was saying, we have information not even the police know. After the attack on Vale four years ago, Torchwick never left the employ of Cinder's organisation. If they're controlling the Council, it stands to reason that Torchwick's men are within the Parliament building in the middle of the city," Ozpin explains. "Find him, get him to cooperate, you may be able to get inside and do what you have to do."

"Where is he?" Ruby asks.

"We don't know. You'll have to find him. Good luck." He hangs up.

"Where do we start?" Blake asks, very business-like.

"Junior's club," I reply. "Best place to start if you want to find _anyone_."

"No sense dilly-dallying," Weiss says. "Let's go."

"Not that simple, honey," Ruby points out. "We're wanted fugitives, remember?"

"Then what do we do?"

"Lay low. Wait til nightfall. Move out," Blake tells her. "Less people around plus the cover of darkness means we're not as likely to get caught."

"All right. Let's find somewhere to hide out and figure out how to get Junior to talk," Ruby tells us. "Wait, can we make it to the Emerald Forest?"

"If we're careful, yes," I reply. "Let's go." We start moving in the direction of the forest, sticking to back alleys. Crossing the entire city takes a couple of hours, but eventually we make it to the relative safety of the trees. We stay there until the sun goes down, at which point we prepare to go interrogate Junior.

**A/N: There's another chapter. Hope you enjoyed. I know it's a bit shorter, but it was plot-development-y, so there's that. Also, sorry about the delay. I didn't have time to upload the chapter for a while, then I didn't know what to call it. Anyway. This story arc will probably be about ten chapters, but don't ask me how long the overall story will be because I have no idea. I also know how this arc's gonna end, which surprises me because I very rarely think even one chapter ahead, never mind six. Oh, I'm gonna explain the title, which I only recently figured out. It's a quintuple entendre suggested by my friend. One: "Hitch" like a hitch in a plan. Two: it means getting married. Three: it means connections, like Cinder's connections to a larger network of bad guys. Four: in Canadian slang, it means doing time in jail. Five: a hitch can mean an obstacle. And I was proud of myself for the triple entendre of "New Beginnings". Anyway, leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading.**


	5. Unforeseen Collaborations

**Yang POV**

We head back into Vale under the cover of darkness and make our way to Junior's club. As we walk, we constantly look around us to make sure no one tries to do anything that would be bad for us. We arrive without incident and enter the club, which is practically deserted aside from Junior and his henchmen. The henchmen freak out when they see us and rush to grab their weapons and stop us in our tracks while Junior gulps and straightens his tie.

"Nobody shoot!" he yells. "Let's be civil. Ladies, what do you want?"

"Where's Torchwick?" I ask, pushing past Junior's men and walking towards the bar.

"Roman Torchwick?" Junior asks, matching my pace.

"No, his son, John Torchwick. The fuck do you think?" I reply as I reach the bar. "Get me a strawberry sunrise," I snap at the bartender.

"Fair point. Why should I tell you?" Junior asks.

"Don't push me, dipshit."

"All right, fine, I'll tell you what I know. He was hired by some top-secret society who want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet," he starts.

"I know. Where is he _now_?" I ask forcefully, taking my drink from the bartender.

"Last I heard, he was in Mistral. I don't know if he's still there."

"How long ago?"

"Couple of weeks, maybe?" he says doubtfully.

"I don't want a _maybe_, I want a _definitely_," I growl. I'm getting more annoyed every time Junior opens his mouth.

"Okay, sorry. Yeah, it was fifteen days ago when I heard that. He _might _have moved, but I can't say. What I do know is that he remotely contacted me and asked for some of my men. I didn't wanna fuck around with him, so I did what he asked. Now my boys are at Parliament."

"Do you know why?" I ask, more calmly now that I'm getting some answers.

"Torchwick said someone wants him keeping an eye on the Council. Easiest way to do that is have people on the inside working security. They can overhear a lot of stuff," Junior explains. "I don't know anything else about what he's up to, but his guys hang out in a bar close to Parliament when they're off duty. You might be able to get more out of one of them."

"Thank you, Junior. You've been _very _helpful. But this conversation: it never happened. Understood?" He nods and I gesture to the rest of Team RWBY that we're done here. They follow me out of the club and we consider our next move.

"We're gonna need more inconspicuous clothing. We can't keep moving around at night," Blake points out.

"We can't exactly go into a store and buy what we need," Weiss answers.

"No. We'll have to steal some stuff," Blake tells us quietly.

"_No_!" Weiss hisses. "I can't _steal _stuff. Don't be foolish!"

"I don't like it either, Weiss, but it's our only option," Ruby says softly, putting her hand on Weiss' arm. "It's not like we'll get caught anyway. Blake is one of Beacon's stealthiest graduates ever."

"Yes. I can get what we need, but it'll take a while. Hoodies, jeans, sunglasses. Couple of trips to get everything," Blake tells us. "But we'll have to avoid our signature colours. Of course, _some _trace should remain, because anyone who's looking for us will expect us to have none at all, if they know us at all."

"Fine. But only because it's necessary," Weiss says grudgingly. We look for a store that will have everything we need and Blake climbs onto the roof.

"Wait here," she tells us before moving out of sight. Ten minutes later, we hear, "Ruby! Weiss!" being whispered and some clothes drop down. I turn my back to allow the two of them to change while we wait for Blake to come back with clothes for her and me. It's not long before she's back and we change quickly.

Next, we figure out which bar Junior was talking about. It doesn't take long, because there's only one within five blocks of Parliament. In the ten or so minutes we spend staking the place out, we don't see anyone who looks like they work for Torchwick.

"We need constant surveillance," Ruby announces quietly. "And we can't afford to waste time. We need to make a plan _now _and be ready to execute it when a target shows up."

"We can't make a scene once inside," Weiss says. "Subtlety is important."

"Yeah, but so is acting natural. No offence, Weiss, but if we're taking the 'trick the guy into trusting one of us then lure him to the rest of the team for interrogation' approach, you're not cut out for the baiting job," I tell her.

"You had the same plan?" Blake asks. "We really do think the same way."

"It's the best way," Ruby points out. "If we ambush a guy on his way out, it could go wrong. Yang, I hate to ask you to do this now that you're married, but you'll have to seduce the target once he's located."

"I uh... I don't know. I wouldn't feel right doing it," I say regretfully.

"Do it," Blake tells me. "I know it means nothing, it's just business. It's not like anything's gonna happen anyway. Just be alluring."

"Okay. What about the rest of you?"

"We'll be waiting in the alley twenty yards to the left of the door as you exit. Tell the guy you're taking him back to your place and that the alley is a shortcut," Ruby replies. "Anyone have any questions?"

No one did, so we prepared to keep watching the bar and Parliament for common visitors. After a day and a half, Blake spots a guy in a security guard outfit exit Parliament and head for the bar. I take in his appearance just before he gets out of sight and we all get into position. I unzip my hoodie a bit and reveal more cleavage before entering the bar and immediately spotting my mark. He has a shaven head and a nose that looks like it's been broken more than once. He's well-built and looks like ordinary people would be intimidated by him. His uniform consists of a dark blue jacket and pants and a belt with an empty holster. Apparently the Parliament guards have to leave their weapons at work when they clock out.

I decide to wait a while before making a move, so I sit several stools away from the dude and order a beer. After a few minutes, he seems pretty relaxed and carefree, so I sidle up beside him.

"Hey. You're looking tired. Want a drink?" I ask him in my best seductive voice.

"Huh? Yeah, sure," he replies.

"Get me two more of whatever he's having," I call to the bartender, gesturing at the guy beside me. Within a minute, two shots of whiskey are placed in front of us.

"My, my. Strong start," I tell him. "I've already had some beer, so I can't do liquor now. Looks like you'll have to drink them both." I give him a dazzling smile and he picks up the first shot. "What's your name?" I ask when he finishes his drink.

"Mark. Yours?" he answers. I notice his pupils are dilated. This should be easy if he's that drunk already.

"Sarah," I reply. Despite his obvious drunkenness, I don't want to use my real name. It stands out, even to an alcohol-muddled brain. Can't be too careful.

"Nice name," Mark says. "Wanna get out of here? It's kinda loud."

"I was gonna suggest the same. Come on, let's go to my place." Mark nods and follows me out of the bar. We turn left and walk twenty yards, at which point we come to the mouth of the alley Ruby specified. "Shortcut," I tell Mark, walking down it. He grunts in compliance. About halfway down the alley, I hear a surprised "huh?" and turn to see the cold metal blade of Gambol Shroud pressed to Mark's neck.

"You work for Torchwick?" I ask him. He nods slowly. "Where's your boss?"

"In the city! S-s-service tunnel to the north!"

"Sounds familiar," Blake says. "It's probably a trap."

"Yeah, but it's all we've got," Ruby points out. "What else can you tell us?" she asks Mark.

"No! Torchwick will kill me!" he protests.

"He's the least of your worries," I tell him, cracking my knuckles.

"Okay, okay! He's there with a team of Beacon dropouts. You'll never get to him!"

"Yes we will," I reply, punching him. He falls to the ground, unconscious. "We know exactly where we're going, come on!" I tell my teammates, heading to the same building we entered four years ago. The journey is uneventful and we enter to find no one. Just like last time, we head to the basement where there's a corridor leading to the service tunnel. In the corridor, we find Roman and Team CRDL sitting playing cards.

"Hello, boys," I say, cocking Ember Celica.

"Oh, fuck that," Cardin says, standing up and dropping his cards. He starts inching towards the other end of the corridor while Roman yells at him to stop. "These four will crush us! We don't stand a chance!" he complains.

"Kid, you just don't get it, do you?" Roman asks him. "You're supposed to do as I say. So don't retreat and take these bitches down!"

"Not gonna happen. They got top honours at Beacon. We didn't even finish our training," Russel says.

"What's it gonna be, boys? Fight, or run like the little pussies we all know you are?" I taunt. Without saying a word, all four members of Team CRDL run. Roman sighs.

"Why are you here?" he asks.

"Simple. You're going to get us into Parliament," Weiss tells him.

"No I'm not," he replies, laughing. A split second later, Myrtenaster is pressed against his neck.

"Yes you are."

"Why?" he asks fearfully. I notice his cane in his hand so I take it off him, knowing how proficient he is with it.

"You know why," Blake tells him. "Someone's controlling the Council, and we need to clear our names."

"Oh, kitty cat!" Roman laughs.

"Only _I _get to call her that," I say punching him in the gut. He grunts and doubles over as far as he can without Weiss' sword piercing his neck.

"Even if I get you in there, what do you plan to do?" he asks. "The Council members won't do what you want."

"Leave that to us. Just get us inside," Blake replies.

"What do I get out of it?"

"We don't let Yang beat you into submission," Weiss tells him. For good measure, I crack my knuckles.

"Fine! But it won't be easy."

"We can handle it," Ruby says. "Just come up with a plan."

**A/N: There's chapter 5. Hope you're enjoying so far. So, working with the enemy. How's this gonna end? For once I actually know how the entire arc's going to pan out, except for Chapter 8. I'll work it out when I come to it though. In regards to Team CRDL, they are gonna do stuff at some point, so don't worry if you think I'm just using them as filler. Nothing else to say, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading.**


	6. Forming a Plan

**Yang POV**

"Okay, Miss Schnee, can you get that oversized toothpick off my neck now? I can't think with the threat of being pierced through the throat always looming over me," Roman asks cautiously. Weiss lowers Myrtenaster without saying a word. "Thank you. Now, Parliament is pretty well guarded and not everyone in there is employed by me. Getting the four of you in covertly may not be possible."

"Why not?" Ruby asks.

"My first thought would be to have my guys take you in as 'prisoners' and let you do whatever you're planning, but it would look suspicious if all four of you are brought in by the same guys," Roman explains. "Maybe two of you can go."

"It would be best to not have all of us doing the same thing," Blake points out. "Ozpin might have something for us to do. Makes more sense to have at least one of us on standby."

"She's right," I agree. "Besides, how hard can it be for just two or three of us to get this done?"

"Do we even know what we're doing?" Weiss asks.

"Get in, find out if the Council are being blackmailed or something or if their minds are being controlled. If it's the first one, get them to tell us who's blackmailing them. If it's the second one, erase the charges against us from their records," Ruby tells us.

"What if they're being blackmailed, but they're too scared to cooperate with us?" I ask. "Or if they're being paid to do what the bad guys want?"

"Simple. Find record of their corruption and threaten to expose it."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Weiss asks.

"Isn't Ren good with computers?" Blake asks. "We'll call him, get him to do some digging."

"There's a problem with that idea," Roman interjects. "None of my guys work in the security room and my employers get access to all the security tapes."

"I don't see the problem," Ruby replies.

"We _might _be able to trick my employers into thinking you're actual prisoners until you enter the Council chambers. Then they'll notice what you get up to in there," Roman explains.

"Meh. Not like we'll be screwing in there," I tell him. Blake elbows me in the ribs and tells me to be quiet.

"It's simple. Someone gets into the security room and barricades the door from the inside. They turn off the cameras before anyone goes into the Council chambers," Weiss suggests.

"That's what I was gonna suggest," Ruby says. "Except I was gonna suggest not sending the tapes to these people."

"They'd still get suspicious either way," Roman points out.

"Machines can break. They have no reason to suspect anything if there's a software issue," I tell him. "Hell, Ren could probably make an _actual _software issue."

"You four have an answer to everything, don't you?" he sighs. "Look, anything you do will be risky, no matter how good the plan. In fact, solving all these little hitches is only going to make it harder to succeed because you'll have more to worry about."

"So tell us the important things."

"Like I said, not all of you can go. Two at most. You'll have to 'overpower' my guys, then one of you goes to the security office and deletes the tapes for that day while the other enters the Council chamber and does whatever. With me so far?"

"Yeah," Ruby replies. "Weiss, you and I will go. I'll handle the Council, you get the security office."

"Okay," Weiss says.

"What do Yang and I do?" Blake asks.

"Wait outside, far enough to not look suspicious but close enough to be useful if things go south. One wrong move and your friends are dead," Roman tells her. "They'll need you two on point in case the plan goes awry."

"Got it," I say. "When do we move?"

"As soon as possible. Whoever's controlling the Council isn't going to wait forever. Something's gonna happen," Ruby replies.

"My guys report back to me every night, so you can go tomorrow," Roman tells us. "I'd suggest getting some sleep."

"One of us needs to stay on watch. We can't trust him," Blake points out, gesturing at Torchwick.

"Come on, I'm risking my life to help you!" he protests.

"And that's why we can't trust you. You might try to get out of this," Blake tells him. "I'll take first watch."

I lean against the wall while Ruby and Weiss huddle together. A few minutes later, the three of us are blissfully asleep while Blake presumably keeps an eye on our reluctant ally. I dream of possible scenarios for Ruby and Weiss' mission the next day.

_Ruby and Weiss enter Parliament, surrounded by a squad of armed "guards". To keep up appearances, the two women are slouching somewhat, trying to look dejected and humiliated at their "capture". Blake and I are on a park bench, Blake reading while I surf the web on my scroll. A short time later, gunfire is heard and screams resonate from the building. An emergency call from Ruby comes in on my scroll, so Blake and I rush into Parliament to aid our teammates._

_ Once inside, we see an intense firefight. Ruby and Weiss are crouching behind a wall of ice, no doubt summoned by the heiress, while about forty guys shoot at them. The frozen barrier is slowly chipping away, so Blake and I waste no time in taking down the enemies. In less than two minutes, they're all dead or unconscious while the four of us only received minor injuries._

The dream fades and is replaced with a new one.

_Ruby and Weiss enter Parliament, surrounded by a squad of armed "guards". To keep up appearances, the two women are slouching somewhat, trying to look dejected and humiliated at their "capture". Blake and I are on a park bench, Blake reading while I surf the web on my scroll.__An important broadcast is suddenly displayed on the screen._

"The Huntresses Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, who had been on the run after allegations of terrorism, were brought in today for interrogation and trial. They managed to break free from their captors and nearly succeeded in assassinating the Council. However, Parliament guards were able to bring the criminals down. They are now awaiting trial. If convicted, they will face lifetime imprisonment with no chance of parole. Thank you for your attention," _Lisa Lavender announces. _

_"I'll kill them all!" I scream, charging towards Parliament. Inside, a red haze clouds my vision as I viciously attack anyone in my way. Just as I reach the Council chamber, an immense pain shoots through my back and I collapse. My vision goes dark as I realise I've been shot._

Suddenly, I feel someone shaking my shoulder, pulling me back to reality. I open my eyes and see Blake, her face full of concern.

"You all right? Your hair was starting to smoke," she asks gently.

"Yeah, I'm good. Bad dream," I reply.

"Okay. You slept four hours; wanna take the next watch?"

"Yeah, sure. Get some rest," I tell her, kissing her softly. She curls up against me and puts her head in my lap, falling asleep almost instantly. I notice Roman is also asleep, so I get out my scroll and quietly play some games. Soon, several men who I assume are employed by Torchwick come down the corridor, stopping when they see us. I kick Torchwick to wake him up.

"Wha-huh?" he stammers, looking around. He spots his men and collects himself before speaking again. "Hello boys!" he calls out quietly.

"Sir, why are _they _with you?" one of the guys asks, gesturing at me and the rest of my team.

"Unplanned circumstances, fellas," Roman explains. "We're getting them into Parliament."

"Why?" the other guys asks fearfully.

"Because if we don't, Blondie will beat us until we do," Roman tells him. "You tell me which option you prefer." For good measure, I give the henchmen a sweet smile.

"What's the plan?" the first guy asks, watching me warily.

"You two and a few others are gonna take two of them in as prisoners. Once inside, you let them 'overpower' you while they do what they need to do. So simple even you guys can handle it."

"All right, sir, when are we doing this?" the second guy asks.

"In a few hours. Get some more guys and get ready," Roman tells them. They leave without saying anything else. I go back to playing games while occasionally glancing up at Torchwick to make sure he's not trying anything funny. After a while, Ruby wakes up and my scroll tells me it's a little after six in the morning.

"Morning, Yang," Ruby says, yawning widely. "I'll finish the watch, go back to sleep." I lean back again, eyes closed but not falling asleep. I can't help thinking of my dream. What if something goes wrong, Ruby and Weiss are captured and I'm killed before I can rescue them? Or worse, what if they're killed before they can call for help? I couldn't live with myself if I failed to keep my baby sister safe. She's nineteen, she can look after herself, but I still feel really protective of the girl. And Weiss... She and I have had our differences in the past, and we haven't always seen eye to eye, but she's almost like a sister to me. Wait, no, that doesn't work. Ruby's my sister and I don't feel _nearly _as protective of Weiss as I do of Ruby. Not to mention the fact that those two are dating, which would almost seem like incest if Weiss were like my sister. However you want to look at it, she and I are still close and I'd be slightly more than displeased if something happened to her.

Blake suddenly shifts in her sleep, and I look down to see her peaceful face framed by ebony locks. She looks so serene and carefree, a welcome change from her stoic demeanour she has when she's awake. _At least she'll be safe if something goes wrong_, I think, then mentally slap myself. _Shame on you, Yang! _my brain scolds. _You should be thinking about what to do if something _does _go wrong, not being glad Blake will be fine if it does. _Eventually, I fall into a fitful sleep.

A couple of hours later, I wake to the sound of activity around me. I open my eyes and see everyone else already up and gathering equipment. Several more of Roman's men are with us, watching us, especially me, nervously. They've brought handcuffs, and a heated debate between Weiss and two of them about when the Huntresses will start wearing them is taking place.

"You are _not _putting those things on me here!" Weiss is yelling at the two guys. "You're lucky I even agreed to wear them at all!"

"But you have to!" one of them protests. "The façade won't be believable if you don't!"

"Which is why I agreed to it! But not now!" the heiress shoots back.

"Fine! But as soon as we're within three blocks, they're going on!" the second guy tells her. Weiss huffs, but doesn't argue further.

"Oh, Yang, you're awake," Ruby says when she notices me. "Good. We've been going over the plan. You and Blake will be hanging out a block away from Parliament, while Weiss and I sort things out. Just stay alert and don't look suspicious."

I nod and stretch, blinking sleep out of my eyes. I don't have anything to do, because I slept wearing my gauntlets, so I get up and walk around a bit, trying not to think. A short time later, Ruby, Weiss and Torchwick's henchmen head down the corridor and up the stairs, where apparently an "official government vehicle" is waiting to bring the "prisoners" to Parliament. Blake and I follow to see them off. Along the way, thoughts of something going horrible wrong begin to creep into my head.

"You okay?" Blake asks. "You're getting tense again."

"I just can't help thinking, what if one of us fucks up?" I reply. "If any of you get hurt and I fail to protect you…"

"Hey, listen," Blake tells me, putting her hand on my arm. "We'll all be fine. We'll get through this. Nothing's gonna go wrong. We're some of the best Huntresses ever to graduate from Beacon. If you think about it, that means we're some of the best in history, given that Beacon's widely considered the best combat school there is."

"Yeah, you're right." By this point, we're outside and there's an armoured car waiting for us. It's a sunny day with no clouds in the sky. No one walks past as the car is loaded, not surprising given what district we're in. Ruby rolls down her window to talk to us.

"Just go where I told you. We'll be fine," she tells us.

"Hey, Ruby?" I ask.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful. Don't do anything too risky," I implore.

"Don't worry, Yang," my sister reassures me. "See you on the other side."

**A/N: That's another one done. Hope you enjoyed. Rest of the arc is fully planned. Next two and a half chapters will focus on Ruby and Weiss, then the second half of chapter 9, as well as chapter 10 will be back to Blake and Yang to finish off the arc. Anyway, that's all I have to say. Leave a review, follow/favourite if you want and thanks for reading.**


	7. Infiltration

**Ruby POV**

Weiss and I are sitting quietly in the armoured car, surrounded by guys in riot gear. I reluctantly agreed to let one of them take Crescent Rose, loaded with rubber bullets so I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally killing anyone in the heat of the moment, because prisoners wouldn't be allowed to carry their weapons. It's still really upsetting to see her with someone else though. The minute she's back in my hands will be a good one. Too bad I'll be too busy to savour the moment.

"You okay?" Weiss asks, putting her hand on my leg.

"Yeah. You?" I reply, smiling confidently.

"A little nervous. A lot is riding on this. We can't mess up at all."

"I know, Weiss. Don't worry," I tell her.

"Last time you said that, I had to spend half an hour cleaning cookie dough off the _ceiling_, for crying out loud." I snicker at the memory. What happened was, I once decided to experiment with my regular cookie recipe by adding a dash of Dust. Long story short, there was an awesome reaction in the bowl when it was time to mix all the ingredients and dough went everywhere. We still don't know what reacted with what to make it happen. Weiss doesn't let me anywhere near the baking supplies though.

"Almost there, you two," one of the henchmen announces. "Time for the cuffs."

"Go ahead," I tell him cheerfully, holding out my wrists. Weiss looks at me in shock while my inner Yang tells me I'm a little too eager to get handcuffed. I blush while the cuffs are being put on.

"What is it?" the guy asks.

"Just thinking what my sister would say in this situation," I reply. Weiss grudgingly puts out her wrists and allows herself to be cuffed as the car pulls up outside Parliament.

"All right, we got two high-value prisoners, bringing them in," the lead henchman says gruffly into a comm device.

"You're clear. Be careful with them," a voice replies. Someone opens the door of the car and we all file out. Weiss and I hide our faces as best we can while the guards crowd round us, leaving no escape had we actually been prisoners. We enter Parliament and a guy in a suit stops us. He's tall and has sunglasses and an earpiece. He looks at Weiss and I in turn and smiles.

"Council will want to speak to them right away," he tells our guards. "Go on ahead."

"This is almost too easy," I whisper to Weiss.

"When people say that, it usually means everything's about to go to shit," she whispers back. Our guards escort us down a long hallway during this conversation and stop when we reach a fork. The cuffs are removed and our weapons are returned to us. I'm kinda tempted to hug Crescent Rose now that I have her back, but the lead guard starts talking before I do anything.

"Council chamber's that way-" he points down one hallway, "security room's down there." He points down the other hall.

"Thank you. We have to knock you out now," Weiss tells him.

"Why?" he asks.

"Not just you. The rest of you as well. Not exactly a prison break if our guards aren't dead or unconscious, is it?"

"Fine. Be quick." Weiss and I waste no time in delivering non-lethal strikes to the heads of the eight guys "guarding" us.

"See you later, then," I say, kissing her quickly.

"Bye." We run off in opposite directions to do our jobs. At the end of the corridor I'm running down, I see an elaborate wooden door. It's really pretty, so I decide to slow down and open it instead of smashing it down. Unfortunately, some real Parliament guards exit from a side room and, unsurprisingly, succeed in noticing a nineteen-year-old girl with a giant scythe.

"Hey, stop right there!" one of them yells, drawing his pistol. The others follow suit and I come to a very quick stop. The lead guard steps forward cautiously, never breaking eye contact with me. "Miss Ruby Rose, put down the weapon," he says calmly.

"I don't think so," I reply quietly.

"For a target like you, we're allowed to kill if live capture is too dangerous or difficult. In other words, we will use lethal force to stop you."

I don't bother replying this time. Instead, I use my Semblance to rush forward and get behind them. I then swing Crescent Rose in a wide arc, hitting the guards with the flat part of the blade. One of them hits his head on the floor when he falls and is down for the count. The other four get up and one of them tries to call for backup. I shoot him, and the impact sends him back several feet while a loud crack and a scream tell me at least one of his ribs is broken. Several more swings of Crescent Rose are all it takes to knock out the other guys.

I fold my weapon away and walk towards the wooden doors. Calmly pushing them open, I'm met with the sight of a darkened room with three middle-aged men sitting around a desk. One has a shock of grey hair sticking up in all directions and large round glasses, as well as uneven stubble growing on his face. The second guy has salt and pepper hair and is clean shaven. The third guy has a long black beard and twinkling beetle eyes. They look up and see me, but hardly react at all.

"Close the door on your way in, please," Glasses says.

"You know why I'm here, don't you?" I ask.

"Yes. We are very well aware that you have no connection at all with terrorists. However, someone wanted you out of the way without killing you, so we put out the arrest order with terrorism as the justification," Smoothface explains.

"Who? Name, place, anything you can tell me," I demand.

"Cinder's giving us orders remotely, but someone's paying us to follow Cinder's orders to the letter," Beardo answers.

"You do know what these people want to do, right?" I ask.

"Yes, but you don't understand," Glasses tells me. "A guy came to see us. How he got past security, I'll never know, but he had two briefcases. One was set to release toxins into the air when the timer ran out, one contained millions of Lien and a letter. He told us he would leave one case here and leave with the other. Obviously we chose life."

"That doesn't matter. What matters is your answer to my proposition," I tell them.

"Go ahead," Smoothface says, clearly intrigued.

"You clear our names, revoke the arrest order and give us all the information you have so we can track down Cinder and her associates. In exchange, we take them down and say nothing about them paying you to do their bidding."

"Listen, Miss Rose," Beardo says. "This is a difficult situation. These people, they'll kill us and our families if we disobey them. We're in too deep; we know too much. It's simply too risky. Even now, they're probably aware of this conversation."

"No they aren't," I tell him confidently. "My partner's making sure of it. And I didn't say you had to clear us right away."

"Allow us a moment to discuss," Glasses requests.

"Sure," I answer, and leave the room. The heavy wooden door blocks out all sound from inside the chamber, so I don't hear a word of their conversation. A few minutes later, the door opens and I'm called back in.

"We have made a decision," Glasses announces. "We agree to your deal, but your names will not be cleared until you have fulfilled your end. Do you accept our conditions?"

"If you mean you'll clear us when Cinder's defeated and her bosses are too busy doing other stuff to kill you, then yes, I do. I'll let my team know."

"That is more or less exactly what we mean, Miss Rose. We will send a private order to cease searching for the four of you, to make your job easier without the enemy knowing," Beardo tells me.

"No, don't. It's too risky, too many guys in this building work for Torchwick and therefore Cinder," I caution. "Thanks for the offer though."

"Very well. Perhaps we shall meet again someday," Smoothface says, extending a hand. I shake and turn to leave.

"Miss Rose?" Glasses calls. I turn back to hear what he has to say. "We will send everything we have on Cinder's whereabouts to your scroll. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir," I reply, and exit the chamber, closing the door behind me.

**Weiss POV (occurring simultaneously)**

While Ruby takes off at full speed towards the Council chamber, I more calmly walk towards the security office. As I do so, I take stock of my outfit, realising I may actually have to fight in it. Jeans, not the same as a combat skirt. Could be a hindrance. Hoodie would be fine, except an opponent could grab the hood if I'm not careful. Though I'd never admit it to the others, I'm actually grateful for the sneakers. They'll undoubtedly be much easier to fight in than the six-inch heels I usually wear for my missions.

As I walk, a well-built man in the standard guard outfit with what appears to be a chainsaw on his back comes round a corner from one of the side corridors, and spots me immediately.

"Weiss Schnee, you've made a serious mistake," he tells me, speaking in an accent I can't place. "Surrender or die," he adds, retrieving his chainsaw and revving it up.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," I mutter, drawing Myrtenaster and taking my standard combat stance. _Right foot forward, breathe slowly, focus... _I tell myself, remembering the hours I spent as a child learning the basics of my craft. I close my eyes and collect my thoughts, hearing the chainsaw guy run towards me. I open my eyes at the last second and raise my sword to block his downward swing. The chainsaw bounces back as I do a backflip, landing a safe distance away so I can plan my next move.

_Heavy weapon. Can't be easy for him to swing it around,_ I think, seeing his face contort in annoyance. _Of course, being mad might make him stronger. _Next thing I know, he's charging me again. I stab Myrtenaster into the floor and spread some ice between me and the guy, causing him to slip and fall. He grunts as he slides towards me and attempts to mutilate me as he passes. I gracefully dodge the swing, the whirring teeth of the blade not even coming close to touching me. I then shoot some fire Dust at him which he's unable to avoid. The smell of burning fabric meets my nostrils as the guy's shirt burns, searing the flesh underneath.

He begins screaming in agony, so I use some more ice to extinguish the flames and encase him, effectively ending the fight. With that threat eliminated, I continue on my way. It's not long before I reach a heavy duty steel door with an electronic lock. A small red light on the lock tells me the door isn't going to open. The words "SECURITY - AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY" are engraved on the door, so it doesn't take a genius to work out that it leads to the room I need to go to.

_Generally, an electric shock would short-circuit a lock like that, allowing the door to open. But what if here, it puts the system in lockdown, sealing it completely? _I wonder. _No other option. I'll have to risk it._

I spin some lightning Dust into Myrtenaster's chamber and gently touch the point to the lock. Electricity arcs from the sword to the lock, and the light goes out. I cautiously push on the door, which swings inward to reveal a dimly lit room with computer screens lining one wall. There's a guy sitting in a chair in front of the screens, but he's currently facing the door. The second he sees me, he reaches for a phone on his desk, probably to call for help. I cast a glyph to hold him in place while telling him to be quiet, closing the door behind me as I do so.

Satisfied that the guard won't be making any noise, I walk over to him and pull him out of the chair. He lands roughly on the floor, grunting a little as he turns to look at me nervously.

"Wh-what do you want?" he asks fearfully.

"To turn off the cameras and wire-taps throughout the whole building," I reply. "Something's currently happening, and it would be better if a certain group didn't find out about it."

"The uh... The system's on twenty-four seven, you can't turn it off," the guy tells me.

"Really?" I ask, noticing an extension cord plugged into the wall. Most, if not all of the computers in the room seem to be connected to this one cord. "What if I just unplug everything?"

"I uh... Didn't think of that," the guard admits. "But I can't let you do it."

"There are probably a dozen ways I could prevent you from stopping me, but we could do this the easy way," I reply. "Just lie down and pretend you're sleeping."

"No," he says forcefully, drawing his pistol.

"Wrong answer," I tell him, firing some lightning at him. He drops the gun and convulses, his eyes rolling back in his head. He collapses, hair standing up and smoking. I check to make sure I didn't kill him before unplugging the extension cord. The room is plunged into darkness as I exit, sealing the door with some ice on my way out.

Satisfied that I've done my part of the mission, I decide to go find Ruby. I run into her in the same place we last saw each other and she has a triumphant grin on her face. She briefly kisses me before asking what the escape plan is.

"Fight our way out, find a side exit or get to the roof and jump down," I tell her.

"Fighting seems fun, but not very smart," she replies. "I say roof. Easiest. Just get to the stairs and go up."

"All right, let's go." We consult a handy fire escape floor plan diagram to find the nearest stairwell and head towards it, looking out for any guards along the way. Luckily, none appear, and Ruby and I reach the roof without incident.

"Wow. Higher than I thought," Ruby says, looking over the edge. I also look down and see that we're about five storeys up. From this height, I see two women who I'm pretty sure are Blake and Yang, inconspicuously sitting on a bench. "Wait, fire exit," Ruby announces from the other side of the roof. I join her and look doubtfully at the rickety staircase on the wall. Something must be showing on my face, because Ruby asks, "what? It's perfectly safe."

"Okay. But you go first, honey," I reply. She grins and starts climbing down, reaching ground level in no time. I cautiously follow gaining confidence once I realise the structure is perfectly rigid. "Let's go meet the others. I saw them over that way," I tell Ruby, pointing in the direction I saw the other half of Team RWBY. We stow our weapons, hiding them with moderate difficulty before setting off. It's a short walk to meet Blake and Yang, who accompany us down an alley to discuss the mission.

"How'd it go?" Yang asks.

"Perfectly," Ruby says. "I didn't have a problem with the Council. They're being bought, but they're gonna send me everything they have on Cinder's whereabouts and clear our names once we stop her."

"And the security room was no trouble. I merely had to unplug the computers. So simple a child could have done it," I say.

"Excellent," Blake tells us. "A clean job. Hopefully it'll get us the results we need."

Suddenly, Ruby's scroll goes off. She looks at the information it presents, eyes lighting up as she reads.

"Guys, the government managed to trace all of Cinder's communications to the Council back to their source! I know exactly where she is!" she announces excitedly. "She's in Vacuo! Let's call Ozpin!" Yang whips out her scroll to contact our former Headmaster.

"Yang. Is there something I can help you with?" he asks as soon as he answers Yang's call.

"We know where Cinder is," the blonde replies.

"Really?" Ozpin asks, obviously surprised. "We've only just reached that conclusion ourselves. I'm impressed."

"So you'll let us go after her?" Yang asks.

"Yes. Make your way up to the school. An airship will be waiting to take you to Atlas."

"Atlas?" Ruby asks. "She's in Vacuo."

"That's not what our intel suggests. Perhaps it would be prudent for you to split up," Ozpin replies.

"I agree," Blake says. "Yang, you and I will go to Atlas, Ruby and Weiss will go to Vacuo."

"Sure," Yang says.

"That's fine," Ruby agrees.

"Oh, Ruby?" Yang asks. "If Cinder _is _in Vacuo and not Atlas, wait until I arrive before taking her out."

"Sure thing, sis," Ruby replies.

"Very well. I will have another airship prepare. Make haste, ladies. Goodbye," Ozpin tells us, hanging up. The four of us head towards Beacon, climbing the immense staircase that was carved into the cliff two years ago so people didn't need an airship to visit the school. It's an exhausting climb for most people, but Huntresses are conditioned enough to handle it with ease. When we reach the airship docks, we see Ozpin waiting near two of the Atlesian military's new top-of-the-line supersonic jets.

"A decision has been made. Cinder may be too dangerous for confinement," the grey-haired Huntsman tells us when we approach. "You have permission to terminate her if you find her, but _only _if you deem it the best course of action. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," we reply unanimously.

"Then good luck to all of you," Ozpin says, gesturing at us to board the jets.

**A/N: Chapter 7 complete. Hope you enjoyed. I'm thinking I should address the obvious White Rose stuff that went on. If you read the original story, you know Ruby and Weiss were already dating at this point, but it wasn't really stated in this story for any new readers. Just clearing that up in case any of you were reading and going "what? There's White Rose here?" Anyway, like I said last chapter, chapter 8 and the first half of 9 will be focusing on Ruby and Weiss, for what should now be an obvious reason. Second half of chapter 9 as well as chapter 10 will be back to the Bumblebee. Anyway, that about sums everything up, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading. **


	8. Welcome to Vacuo

**Weiss POV**

"Where we headed?" the pilot asks as Ruby and I sit down.

"Vacuo," Ruby replies.

"Sure thing. Any particular area? It's a big place."

"Outskirts. Probably a little outside the city itself. We don't want the target knowing we're coming if she's actually there," I suggest.

"Yeah. Put us down half a mile outside. How long until we get there?" Ruby asks.

"Top cruising speed would get us there in a couple of hours, but we can't maintain it for that long. Engines'll overheat," the pilot replies. "At the maximum safe speed, two and a half to three hours, so get comfortable."

He activates the flight computer, and a cool female voice announces "engines active. Vertical flight mode, engaged". We fly up slowly, getting about twenty feet in the air before the voice announces "horizontal flight mode, engaged".

"Buckle up, ladies," the pilot tells us, grinning. He throttles up, and the jet blasts forward, powered by twin thermal turbojets which combust flame Dust to generate the heat they need to work. A sonic boom tells me we broke the sound barrier almost immediately after we started. Inside the jet though, everything feels the same, besides the fact that we're pressed into our seats by inertia.

"Our coordinates point to a skyscraper downtown," Ruby tells me looking at her scroll. "Little bit of research reveals that the bottom half is office space rented out to corporations, top half is luxury apartments. No way to know where Cinder could be, but my guess is that she's not hiding in an office."

"I agree. How many floors is the building?" I ask.

"Forty. Twenty of them are living space. Eight apartments per floor."

"Dammit. That's a hundred and sixty," I say dejectedly.

"We can rule some out. Twenty-first to twenty-third floors are permanently rented out by the companies using the office space, probably for their employees in other kingdoms who could be on business trips to Vacuo."

"Still leaves a hundred and thirty-six. Any more to eliminate?" I ask, still not feeling too optimistic.

"Uh, lemme see," Ruby replies. "Okay, I've verified the residents of all but seven units. The rest check out, driver's licenses, paying taxes, clean records, everything. Those seven, though, the only record of the tenants is on the leases and the bank accounts used to pay the rent," she tells me after a few minutes of silence. "Other than that, they don't exist."

"Wait a second," I said, suddenly realising something. "How are you getting this information? There's no way it's all public records."

"Uhh... Hacking government databases?"

"Ruby Rose, do you realise how illegal that is?" I snap.

"Hey, I didn't actually do the hacking!" she protests. "Ren did, and he gave me a program to access the information."

"And you didn't think that maybe your teammates should know about this?"

"Yang does, but we knew you and Blake wouldn't approve, so we didn't tell you."

"Are you serious?" I exclaim. "WHY are we keeping secrets?!"

"Well..." Ruby says slowly. "Hey, my 'secret' just reduced the number of apartments we have to check from a hundred and sixty to seven, but I guess I shouldn't have done that!"

"That... That's not what I meant," I tell her quietly.

"Can we talk about this later?" she asks. "We need to focus."

"All right, all right. But we _are _talking about it."

The next two hours are spent in silence. Ruby does stuff on her scroll while I stare at the landscape below, moving too fast for me to discern any details. Suddenly, my scroll goes off, and I see that Blake is calling.

"Is everything okay?" I ask when I accept the call. Blake's frowning face is on screen.

"Did you know Ruby and Yang have a program to hack government databases?" she asks.

"Until a couple of hours ago, no. Why?"

"Just curious. My _darling _wife and sister-in-law think this is a good idea, that's all," Blake tells me with a forced smile.

"Come on, Blake, you know you love me!" Yang calls from off-screen. Blake rolls her eyes, but a small genuine smile forms on her lips.

"Yes, I do, but you can be _very _annoying," she tells the blonde.

"That's my job, kitty cat."

"No, Yang, that was your job when you were my _girlfriend. _Now you're my _wife_, so your job is to support me in times of stress and all that other mushy stuff neither of us actually care about."

"Bo-ring," Yang deadpans. I clear my throat loudly to remind the two that the line is still open.

"Sorry, Weiss," Blake tells me. "Anyway, just seeing if you knew. Good luck."

"You too. Bye," I reply before hanging up. Soon after, the pilot announces that we've arrived and I feel the jet slow down. It slowly descends, gently making contact with the ground as the engines spool back.

"All right, Weiss, we sneak over the wall or through the sewers. Your call," Ruby says as we disembark.

"Security checkpoint, like normal people?" I suggest.

"Weiss, we're still technically wanted. I don't know if they got the memo here, but still. Besides, Cinder might have people in Vacuo's security force, so it's safer if no one knows we're in the city," Ruby points out. I can't deny her logic, as much as I hate to admit it.

"Fine. We sneak over the wall, but we do it my way," I tell her. She nods. "I can cast a camouflage glyph over each of us. It won't make us invisible, but if we move _slowly_ we should be able to avoid being seen," I explain, making sure to stress that we need to move slowly. While undeniably a good Huntress, Ruby does tend do things quickly, a lot like her brute of a sister.

"And how do we get up?" the redhead in question asks.

"We find a blind spot and I use a sling glyph to launch us up."

"A wha...?" she asks, confused.

"Sling glyph. Two parts. One holds you in place and I can aim the shot and all that. The other part launches you. Remember how we took down the Nevermore during initiation?"

"Yeah?"

"It's kinda like the glyph I used to fire you at the cliff face, except it's more practical because it doesn't need a supply of pre-existing potential energy to work. It's a self-sufficient slingshot," I explain. Ruby's face lights up.

"Sounds fun. Let's do it," she tells me, grinning. I gather my thoughts and cast the first glyph over Ruby. Its effect takes hold and she suddenly blends in with the grey stone wall behind her. The camouflage is so good that I probably wouldn't notice her if I didn't know she's there. Next, I cast the same glyph on myself. I look down and see that my legs and feet are now the same colour as the ground beneath them. As I step forward, the colours shift to match the new area of ground, creating a noticeable ripple effect. Even so, it shouldn't be a problem if we move slowly. If anyone sees anything, they'll probably think it's a trick of the light.

Ruby and I walk for a few minutes, trying to find a spot on the wall where guards won't see two multicoloured streaks land. Eventually, we find a good place to launch from and I prepare the sling. Two glyphs appear, one large one around Ruby and a smaller one underneath her, with thin glowing lines connecting the two. I look at the wall to determine the best angle and power for the shot, and wave my hand to position the glyph and payload accordingly. The redhead looks at me and nods, so I make a sharp upward gesture and the bottom glyphs snaps upwards, propelling Ruby skywards. A couple of seconds later, I hear a gentle thud as she lands at the top, so I do the same for myself and launch upwards.

When I land, I take a good look at the city of Vacuo. Its skyline doesn't resemble Vale's one bit. The downtown region is all skyscrapers, every one of them covered in neon lights and giant logos. Even from this distance, I can hear the sounds of traffic trying to navigate the undoubtedly busy streets. In the sunset, the entire city is bathed in a warm glow that I know won't last long, as people are heading home to get ready for parties and club-hopping. I'd prefer to do the mission during the day, because there would be less people in the building we're targeting, reducing the risk of collateral damage. Unfortunately, we can't afford to wait. If Cinder _is _here, she might not be for long.

"Let's go, before any guards show up," Ruby tells me. I nod and make a series of glyphs, forming a sort of staircase towards ground level. We jump down quickly and I remove the glyphs.

We land in a deserted alley and, judging by the lack of any noise from the wall, none of the guards notice us either. Wordlessly, Ruby checks the coordinates on her scroll and starts walking towards downtown. I follow, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. A ten-minute walk later, we arrive at the target building without incident.

It's an impressive structure, constructed from limestone and glass. Through the doors, I can see a dark grey marble hallway. As Ruby and I enter, I observe a large reception desk made of mahogany wood. It's currently unstaffed, meaning there's no one to stop us from entering the gold elevator at the other side of the hallway.

"Where are the suspicious units?" I ask.

"Start from the twenty-seventh floor," Ruby replies. I thumb the button marked "27" and the elevator deposits us a short while later. Weapons drawn, we prowl through the corridor, looking for the room whose occupants Ruby was unable to verify earlier. We find it fairly quickly, what with there only being eight apartments, and to no one's surprise, it's locked.

"I can kick it down," Ruby tells me.

"And _I _can simply unlock it," I reply, raising my hand and concentrating. A white symbol glows on the door, and the tell-tale _click _of a lock being opened is heard. Ruby looks at me, mouth agape. "It's called being civilised," I tell her. She shrugs and walks into the apartment.

Inside, a Faunus with deer antlers is watching TV and doesn't hear us enter. Ruby, ever the subtle type, plants Crescent Rose in the poor guy's floor and yells "hands up!"

The Faunus scrambles to his feet, turns around and looks at us fearfully. He slowly raises his hands, which are visibly shaking. "Wh-who are you? What do you want?"

"Cinder," I reply in a low voice.

"The boss? I don't know where she is or what she's doing. Sh-she pays me to live here and put a fake name on the lease. I don't know why. I swear," he says frantically.

"How many more in the building?" Ruby asks.

"I think six other apartments. But they're not all one person each. Some have more. I don't- I don't know the distribution."

"Thank you. You've been very helpful," Ruby tells him, before smacking him with the flat part of her scythe blade. He crumples, and we head to the next apartment. The two guys living in that one don't help us out much either. We knock them out like the first dude and continue on our way, both of us wondering if this hadn't been a wasted trip. Hopefully Yang and Blake are having better luck.

We go through the first six apartments, learning absolutely nothing in the process. By this point, I'm so frustrated that I'm tempted to just blast the door of the seventh in rather than unlocking it and sneaking in. Thinking of the teasing from Yang that would ensue if I did and she found out, I restrain myself. Like with all the previous apartments, the person or people inside don't hear us enter. We're not as stealthy as Blake; she would be able to get right up behind the occupants, but that sort of stealth isn't needed for the mission.

Ruby and I are about to start searching when a familiar voice makes us stop dead.

**A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Also, I'm back to Hitched, after... Actually I'm too lazy to go check how long it's been since I updated. I'm not gonna get too far in to the reason for the gap, but let's just say I keep getting bored of my stories and starting new ones. Also, this hopefully marks the beginning of more frequent updates but no promises. The arc's almost over, might work on other stories after that while I sort out plans for the next arc. Anyway, who did Ruby and Weiss hear? You'll have to stay tuned... Never mind that, leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Thanks for reading. **


	9. Closing In

**Ruby**

Weiss and I charge into the last apartment, but stop dead when we hear a familiar voice.

"I want Team RWBY in front of me, _without _their weapons," Cinder drawls from somewhere in the apartment. "And make sure they're alive. I have some _very _special plans for them."

"I won't disappoint you, ma'am," someone replies.

"I hope not. I'd hate to have to..._replace _you," Cinder tells the dude ominously. We hear a gulp as we face each other and nod. We quickly run in the direction the conversation came from, ready to give Cinder hell.

We're disappointed to find nothing more than a Faunus looking at a desktop computer with an attached webcam. He must have been having that conversation on a video call. Just my luck.

"Where is she?" I ask the Faunus, pointing Crescent Rose at him.

"Who?" he replies. "And how did you get in?"

"We have our ways," Weiss tells him. "And you know who."

"Cinder? She'll kill me if I tell you anything!"

"Tell us what we want to know and we'll take her down before she does anything to you," I promise. "We know she's in Atlas, we just want to know where."

"If you know she's there, why are you here?"

"We had intel suggesting she was in either Vacuo or Atlas. We didn't know which. We have two other Huntresses in Atlas now," Weiss explains. "Give us Cinder's location and this whole thing will be over in under half an hour."

"Why should I believe you?" he asks.

"Why _wouldn't _you believe us?" I reply. "We're trustworthy."

"I've never met you, you break into my apartment and say you can take out my boss. Forgive me for having my doubts."

"What do you want in return for information? I can probably get it for you," Weiss tells him.

"Oh, now you're bribing me? Try bribing the other guys when they get here," the Faunus replies, pressing a button on his desk I didn't notice until then. I quickly knock him out as Weiss sits down at his computer.

"Keep the reinforcements off me, I'm gonna try and trace his last call," she tells me. I hear her typing away for several minutes before the bad guys show up. It ends up being a pretty routine fight, a few dudes with guns versus one girl with a gun-scythe the size same size she is.

I use my Semblance to get behind them and swing Crescent Rose in a wide arc, slashing open the backs of three of them before any of them know what happened. These guys crumple as the others turn round warily. One of them tries to shoot me, a shot easily deflected with the blade of my scythe. The bullet embeds itself in the wall as I return fire, blasting the dude several feet back in a shower of blood with my much higher caliber round. The three remaining enemies look at me in shock before unsheathing identical swords. I grin in amusement as the first guy tries to cut me. I hook my blade around his own before kicking his stomach, causing him to double over. The next two come at me at the same time, one high, one low. I swing my weapon perpendicular to the floor, using it almost like a staff to deflect both swords at once. I then hit one dude with the flat of my blade, knocking him to the floor. I smile again. This fight is already over; my enemies haven't realised that I'm toying with them. I could end it any time if I weren't having so much fun with them.

All three swordsmen spread out around me, surrounding me. I anticipate all three of their attacks and easily block everything, not even trying to hit back. Yet.

"Ruby! Why haven't you stopped them yet?" Weiss demands.

"Come on, Weiss!" I complain. "Can't I have a little fun on missions?"

"This is a game to you?" one of the swordsmen asks. "One wrong move and you're dead."

"Nope!" I taunt, growing bored of playing with them. I make a vertical incision in his chest, causing blood to spray everywhere. Turning Crescent Rose so the blade is parallel to the floor, I then spin and quickly finish off the other two.

"I figured out where she is," Weiss tells me as I finish my fight. "Atlas. We'll send the coordinates to Blake and Yang so they don't have to search for hours."

"Right," I reply, taking out my scroll and calling my sister.

"Did you find her?" Yang asks immediately after picking up.

"No, but Weiss hacked someone's computer and traced a video call back to her," I reply. "We're sending you the coordinates now. And be careful, we overheard that conversation and she apparently has special plans for all of us."

"Don't worry about us," Yang tells me. "We'll see you back in Vale."

"Good luck," I say as she hangs up. I then text her the coordinates as Weiss calls our pilot to come pick us up.

**Blake (one hour earlier)**

Yang looks at me apologetically as I finish talking to Weiss about the secret she shared with Ruby. Neither of us say anything as the kingdom of Atlas comes into view. It looks pretty much how I've always imagined: an enormous metropolis full of gleaming skyscrapers, the pinnacle of modern technology. From this distance, I can just barely make out anti-air cannons designed to automatically track and destroy aerial Grimm or hostile vehicles. I can also see what looks like an energy barrier, transparent and very different to the wall surrounding Vale.

"Blake, can we hot drop in?" Yang asks, almost pleadingly. "I haven't done that in ages."

"I suppose so. It's easier," I reply reluctantly. Yang beams as the pilot gets on the intercom.

"Where do you want dropped off?" he asks.

"We're hot dropping in," I reply. "Just find a building with a sturdy-looking roof."

"Sure thing." A few minutes later, the door at the back of the jet opens and the pilot wishes us luck. Yang jumps first, propelling herself downwards with Ember Celica, presumably for extra adrenaline. She lands in a roll as I follow suit, touching down lithely on my feet.

"Think you could teach someone who isn't a cat how to always land on her feet?" Yang asks as we head towards the door to the interior of the building. I punch her playfully in response. "Kidding," she says, pretending to be in pain. "Anyway, where do we begin?"

"No idea," I reply. "Ozpin didn't exactly give us anything to go on."

"We could just look for the evillest looking building. She'll be on the top floor," Yang suggests.

"I don't think supervillains work like that in real life, honey," I tell her. "Though it would be convenient," I add, pointing to an unmarked building made of reflective black glass.

"Fuck it, let's start there." After entering the building we landed on, it takes us a minute or so to find the elevator. We take it down to the ground floor and find that the city of Atlas is even more impressive at street level.

The buildings tower around us, making me feel small and insignificant. At the end of the block Yang and I are on, an Atlesian Knight stands guard on the street corner, presumably serving as law enforcement. The sidewalk is full of people going about their business: men in suits with briefcases, families, teenagers hanging out or shopping with their friends. Electronic billboards are everywhere, advertising a wide array of products.

"Uh, Blake?" Yang asks. "Where's the building?" I look around and see that the black structure we decided to start with is now hidden from view by other equally impressive skyscrapers.

"The jet flew in from the south and was facing north when we dropped out," I mutter to myself. "We must've faced south jumping out from the back... Door was on the left, building was on the right..."

"So, west?" Yang asks, hearing everything I'm saying.

"I think so," I reply. A short walk later, we find ourselves in front of the main door of the imposing black structure. Yang promptly struts in, demanding that a very startled receptionist tell her who runs the building.

"I- what?" the poor woman stutters.

"Who. Runs. The. Building?" Yang asks again, slowly.

"That's confidential," the receptionist replies. I notice her hand snaking to an alarm button on her desk, but I'm too late to stop her from pressing it.

"Blake, why do receptionists always make things difficult on our missions?" Yang asks, before slamming her fist into the face of the woman in question. I shrug and ready Gambol Shroud as the lobby fills with guys in unmarked black uniforms.

"Drop your weapons!" one of them commands. "Come quietly, no one gets hurt."

"Oh, this one doesn't _come quietly_," Yang smirks, gesturing at me before charging towards the nearest enemy. Before anyone can react, her target is embedded in the wall behind him from the force of her punch. His colleagues stare at Yang, dumbfounded, as she picks another enemy and brutally kicks him in the chest. I hear ribs shatter from the impact as the other guys are spurred into action. With the two dozen or so of them, most of whom are at least decently trained in combat, it takes a few minutes before my wife and I dispatch all of them.

The first few that attack me fall to surgically placed strikes from Gambol Shroud. I take them down with a combination of whacks to the side of the head and cuts through important muscles like the biceps and triceps. Either way, those guys are out of the fight.

Meanwhile, Yang is fighting half the guys at the same time, not even using Ember Celica as anything more than armour plating. She ducks and deflects every attack coming towards her, always countering with a devastating punch or kick of her own. However, she wisely leaves one guy so we can question him.

"Do you work for Cinder?" she demands, holding him up against the wall. When he doesn't answer, I aim my pistol at his left hand, knowing I could shoot him there if necessary and he wouldn't bleed out. He still doesn't respond, so Yang nods at me and I squeeze the trigger. For a second, no reaction other than a flinch. As blood begins leaking out of the wound, however, the guy starts yelling in pain. I take aim at his other hand as Yang asks again, "do you work for Cinder?"

The guy finally nods, tears of agony present on his face. "She here now?" He shrugs."You don't know? How can you not know if your boss is here?"

"She... She always moves..." the guy explains in between pained breaths. "If she's here, she'll be on the top floor."

"Yang, let him go," I tell the blonde. She drops the guy as I tell him to go to a hospital and reconsider his life choices.

"Didn't I tell you she'd be on the top floor of the evillest looking building?" my wife asks, smiling.

"That's if she's here," I reply seriously. "But yes, you did." In the interests of saving time, we decide to take the express elevator to the top floor of the building. It's occupied almost entirely by an office. Three walls are tinted glass, offering an amazing view of the Atlas skyline. A large mahogany desk sits facing the elevator, which from the inside of the office has its doors painted to look like mahogany as well. The fourth wall is lined with mahogany bookshelves. Unfortunately, there's nothing to suggest that Cinder has been here recently. I'm about to suggest looking through some of the books when Yang's scroll goes off.

After a hurried discussion with Ruby, the brawler's face lights up as she received coordinates pointing just outside of the city. It's time to take down Cinder.

**A/N: Hello again. Sorry about the obscene delay; I had a load of other stuff going on then I was just more interested in my other stories. Anyway. Next chapter will be Cinder's downfall, but by no means will the story be ending there. Far from it. As you'll see, things are only getting started for our heroines. Not gonna give anything away though. So, thanks for reading, and leave a review or follow/favourite if you want. **


	10. Dying Flames

Yang

"Is this the place?" Hearing Blake's voice, I recheck the coordinates Ruby sent me.

"If Ruby and Weiss' intel is good, yeah," I reply. The Faunus nods, and we survey the building in front of us. It's an old warehouse, in disrepair but not abandoned. According to Blake, she can hear the sounds of activity coming from inside, and not the normal stuff for a warehouse. Suspicious orders are being shouted and metal is clanging, as though a swordfight is taking place. I hear none of this with my human hearing, but I trust Blake to not make this sort of thing up.

"Entry point?" my wife asks.

"We could just go through the wall," I suggest, cocking Ember Celica. "Give ourselves the element of surprise."

"_Or, _we could sneak in and not let them know we're there," the Faunus replies.

"You're no fun," I tell her. Loading up the data-finding program Ren wrote for Ruby and I, I access the building's schematics. "Two possible entry points. One in front, one round the back. Probably equally well-guarded. We're not splitting up."

"Why not?"

"Because that bitch could be anywhere in the building and she won't hesitate to kill you. We'll have to take her down together," I explain.

"Okay. Which door's closer? No point dragging this out."

"Back door. Should be about thirty yards that way," I reply, pointing, "and around the corner."

"Let's go." We cautiously head to the door, careful to stay out of sight of any of the windows. We make it to the door no problem, and Blake tries the handle. "Dammit," she mutters when she's unsuccessful.

"Locked?" I ask, hoping she'll let me break it down.

"Yeah. I'll try to pick it," Blake replies, pulling out a small kit I didn't know she had with her.

"Fuck that," I reply, drawing back my fist. I punch the door at full force, firing Ember Celica at the same time. The metal square is blasted off its hinges, revealing a short hallway and taking an unfortunate guard with it.

"What happened to 'not letting them know we're here'?" Blake asks, smiling in spite of herself.

"That would be boring," I explain. "They'd figure it out sooner or later anyway."

"Sooner, apparently," the Faunus tells me as her cat ears perk up. A moment later, I hear footsteps as more guys appear at the end of the hallway. I raise my hand and make a _come and get me _gesture as the leader of the group signals for his men to stay put. An almost indiscernible movement of his eyes provokes me to look towards the floor between the group and Blake and I, where I notice a fine wire strung between the walls.

"Tripwire," I comment calmly. "Really? Fucker thinks _that__'__ll _stop us?"

Blake looks at me, obviously impressed that I noticed it. "Come on, honey, let's deal with these guys," she tells me, drawing Gambol Shroud. I carefully step over the tripwire, not eager to find out what it's set to trigger. Immediately, the dudes facing me ready their weapons. I smile as I take the first swing, slamming the nearest guy's skull into the wall. I'm not sure which is more damaged, the building or the guy, as I duck a machete being swung at my head. An uppercut sends the attacker several inches into the air as I follow up with a roundhouse kick to his stomach. He crashes into another enemy as Blake joins the fray, both blades whirling.

As we finish off the grunts, another dude approaches us. He's dressed in elaborately woven but loose fitting robes and armed with a black sword. His blade glows with Dust as he smiles menacingly, revealing too-sharp canines. His black eyes glint with malice.

"Took you long enough, considering you're supposed to be Beacon's finest," he spits, gesturing at the unconscious bodies of those Blake and I defeated. "Let's see how good you _really _are."

He swings his sword at me and I roll to the side. Electricity arcs from his blade, shocking me and making me realise he doesn't even need to touch us to be dangerous. As my hair frizzles stands on end from the current, Blake steps in and launches a rapid flurry of strikes, leaving clones and attacking from multiple directions with such speed she almost appears to be several people. Impossibly, the swordsman manages to deflect everything and uses his free hand to punch her in the gut. Anger at seeing someone hurt my kitten clouds my mind as I rise and run at the dude. Seeming to not even care, he sidesteps and swings at my head. I'm only just able to duck as he gets behind me and kicks me in the back, sending me sprawling.

Meanwhile, Blake recovers from the punch and gets to her feet, activating her pistol at the same time. She fires and our opponent turns, swinging his sword. Based on the sudden appearance of two holes in the ceiling, he sliced the bullet in half _in mid-air_, leaving a dumbfounded expression on the faces of my wife and I.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and _hit me_," he taunts, legs spread in a wide stance. I smile at the challenge and activate the long-range mode on Ember Celica. I then fire multiple blasts as I run towards him, using the smoke from the explosions to hide my angle of approach. At the last second, I slide between his legs and punch upwards, getting a sick sense of satisfaction as my fist crushes his naughty bits. Unfortunately, instead of doubling over like I expected, he reaches out and grabs my hair, throwing me to the floor. Blake uses the opportunity to shoot him in the chest, and this time he doesn't realise in time. Blood pours out of the wound as he staggers back, allowing me to get up.

He takes another swing at me, but much slower this time. I step inside the attack and punch his forearm, feeling the bones snap as he drops his sword. I kick it away as I punch again, this time making contact with the bullet wound. He howls in pain as I sweep his legs from under him, finishing with another punch to the chest as he's on the floor. His ribcage collapses under the impact and he lies still.

"Let's go," I tell Blake, heading deeper into the building. In the main storage area, we find a large group of grunts working on their swordsmanship. They're being instructed by a tall man in a black leather jacket, pacing up and down the room and giving pointers every now and then.

"He's probably a rogue Huntsman," Blake whispers.

"I'll take him," I reply. The Faunus nods indifferently, so I reload Ember Celica and yell, "hey, asshole! You ready for this?"

The instructor turns and looks at me in alarm. He's barely able to raise his own weapon, a kwan dao with no immediately evident special features, as I reach him. The fight is over in seconds as I took him completely by surprise. I look threateningly at the grunts as their teacher lies unconscious with his weapon snapped in two beside him. Wisely, but somewhat disappointingly, they all turn tail and run.

"Well done," a familiar voice drawls, accompanied by clapping. The sound makes my blood boil as Blake joins me at my side and I turn to see Cinder, walking slowly towards us. She's dressed the same way as always: a red dress with Dust woven into the fabric. Her orange eyes burn with fury as she looks at us, but the anger I see in them is nothing compared to what I feel. "But your assault ends here."

"That's correct," I reply. "Once we take you down, we won't have any reason to stay."

"You think you'll win?" Cinder asks in a mocking tone. "You are like David to my Goliath."

I say nothing as Blake whispers to me. Hearing the information she gives me, I smile as I tell Cinder, "don't get too excited. Goliath loses in the end."

"I'm surprised you knew that," Cinder replies, looking sincerely impressed.

"I didn't; Blake whispered it to me."

"Your honesty is commendable."

"Yep. That's how you know I'm not lying when I say I'm gonna end you today."

Cinder snarls in response, summoning a sword in each hand. I charge at her and a conflict of fist against blade takes place. I appear to have the upper hand, punching straight through her weapons and shattering them. However, a blast of fire sends me back as she summons two more swords.

Blake then tries her luck. Neither woman is able to land a hit on the other, both parrying strikes and trying to hit back almost too fast for the eye to see. In fact, if it weren't for Blake's shadow clones, she probably wouldn't have stood a chance against Cinder's skill. I don't understand how the bitch can be holding her own against either of us. We both have four more years of training since last time we fought her, while she rotted in a prison cell for the same period. It infuriates me to no end that the fight is still in progress.

Blake and I attack in tandem, knowing each other's styles well enough that no form of communication is required between us to know what the other is thinking. Every time she attacks and Cinder parries, I try to use the opening to land a solid hit that would win the duel, and vice versa. However, she constantly summons new weapons, sometimes mid-strike, making it impossible to adapt to her style of combat.

After several minutes of intense fighting, a fireball followed by a swift kick to my jaw take me by surprise and I'm knocked down for a few seconds. In that time, Cinder manages to cut Blake's arm, not so deep that it'll have long-term consequences but deep enough to hinder her now. She then knocks the katana out of the Faunus' right hand before grabbing that wrist and breaking it. Even from ten feet away, I hear the snap as Blake cries out in pain. Cinder follows up with a powerful kick straight to Blake's chest, sending her into a wall.

Several seconds later, my wife hasn't moved an inch. Fearing the worst, I stand up, feeling waves of rage wash over me. I'm vaguely aware of my hair catching fire as a red haze clouds my vision, obscuring everything but the motherfucker who dared to hurt Blake. With an inhuman yell, I charge forward, taking Cinder totally by surprise. She's unable to block my first punch, which shatters her nose and sends her flying, cracking the entire wall she collides with.

I rush over to where she's recovering her wits and punch again, feeling ribs break under the impact. More and more blood flies from the increasingly limp body as I continue to break Cinder, feeling strangely satisfied - no, feeling a sick sense of _enjoyment_ - with every landed hit.

I pour every bit of rage I've ever felt for the woman into the relentless pounding, for the kidnapping of Blake in our first year at Beacon, the attack on Vale that left hundreds of people hurt or killed, the _intrusion on my fucking wedding_, and now the fact that she may have killed the woman I love.

By the time I calm down and the red cloud in my vision disperses, what's left of Cinder is unrecognisable. Her dress is in tatters, her torso is completely deformed and her skull has collapsed entirely. There is no way she's alive, but for some reason I check for a pulse anyway. Predictably, I get nothing. Cinder is dead. _Fucking bitch deserves it_, I tell myself, but part of me wonders if I'm actually okay after what happened. I actually _enjoyed_ beating her to a pulp. I can justify it to myself all I like, but truth be told, I killed another human being - in one of the most painful ways I could have - and _liked _it. I make a mental note to talk to someone about that, but that's the last thing on my mind when I look at Blake.

She still hasn't moved, as far as I can tell. I rush over to her and am immensely relieved to find that she's breathing. However, her arm is still bleeding, not to mention the broken wrist and most likely fractured rib, maybe more than one. After calling our airship pilot and giving him our coordinates, rip off my sleeve and use it to bandage Blake's arm, wishing I could do something about the wrist and the ribs. They'll have to wait until we get back to Beacon.

"Hang in there, Blake," I whisper, planting a kiss on her forehead. Soon after, our airship lands outside. I carry my wife bridal style out to the ship and fasten her into a seat before going back for Gambol Shroud, which she dropped. The sight of Cinder's broken corpse makes me sick to my stomach as I remember what I did, so I grab Blake's weapon and leave as fast as I can. When I get back to the aircraft, she's awake.

"Hey," she says weakly. "Did... Did we win?"

"Yeah," I reply, tears of relief forming in my eyes. "She's dead."

"Are you hurt?"

"Don't worry about me," I tell her quietly. "You have a broken wrist, a fairly deep cut and some fractured ribs. Just relax. We'll get back to Beacon and patch you up."

"Okay." I take the seat to her left and buckle up, cradling her good hand for the duration of the trip. The pilot had the sense to call ahead about Blake's injuries, so a team of paramedics, as well as Ruby, Weiss, Ozpin and Glynda are standing waiting for us when we land. I help Blake out of the ship and onto the stretcher, not letting go of her hand as she's taken to the infirmary.

Wisely, no one asks me for a mission report or anything while the doctors patch Blake up, stitching her wound and putting her arm in a cast. When I'm allowed in to see her, I learn that she's been told to avoid any strenuous activity that could aggravate the rib. I have no problem looking after her until it heals, cooking, cleaning, all the rest of it, but it know Blake won't stand for it. She's too stubborn and independent for that. As it happens, there's another reason why she wants her injuries healed immediately. After making sure no one's around, she gestures at me to move in close.

Bringing her mouth to my ear, she whispers, "it's no fun if I only have one arm and can't move that much." She winks as I move away, leading me to wonder when her mind got so much like mine. I don't have long to ponder it, however, because our teammates, followed by Ozpin and Glynda enter the infirmary for a discussion.

"I presume your mission was a success?" the Headmaster asks, sipping from his mug.

"Yes sir. Cinder is... Dead," I reply.

"It would have been preferable if you brought her in alive," he tells me slowly. "But, I suppose I did give you permission to terminate her if necessary. I am trusting that you did this out of need and not desire?"

"... Yes, sir," I answer, not quite able to look him in the eyes.

"And Ms Belladonna, you were out cold for the final confrontation?" Glynda asks.

"I got knocked out while Yang and I were fighting Cinder together. When I woke up, I was in the airship and Yang announced that she had killed the target," Blake explains.

"I see," Ozpin declares.

"Do any of you know how to heal Blake faster?" I ask, almost desperately. "Some kind of Dust, glyph, anything?"

"I certainly know a spell that can heal most non-fatal injuries," Glynda replies.

"Do it, please," I request.

"It takes strenuous effort on the part of the user, often rendering them unconscious for a considerable period and isn't always successful," Glynda tells me. "It would be best to allow your partner to heal on her own, however difficult that may be for you."

"I could do it," Weiss chimes in. "I know the spell too."

"Weiss, I... I can't ask you to knock yourself out for my sake," Blake protests. "I'll be fine, really."

"Blake, you've rescued me on more occasions than I can count," Weiss reminds her. "And all I do in return is nag and complain. I could use some sleep anyway."

"We will allow you to decide the matter on your own," Ozpin announces, leaving the infirmary with Glynda.

"Are you sure, Weiss?" I ask warily.

"Do you not _want _your wife up and running so you can... Well, do stuff?" she replies, blushing as she finishes her sentence.

"I'm just saying. Don't feel obliged to do this."

"Yeah, seriously, Weiss. I'll be fine in a few weeks," Blake tells her.

"Both of you, _shut up_," she demands in her usual bossy tone. "You guys are always _so willing _to sacrifice yourselves to protect the rest of us, so why are you so opposed to me speeding up Blake's recovery?"

"She has a point, you two," Ruby agrees.

"Okay. Do it," Blake tells Weiss. The heiress raises her hand and a look of intense concentration forms on her face. A glyph fades into existence around Blake, so faint at first that it's almost entirely transparent. Over the course of thirty seconds, it becomes more opaque until it glows a brilliant white. Soon, there's a flash and Weiss collapses. Ruby catches her and eases her onto a chair as Blake stretches her entire body, not showing any signs of pain.

"What are you doing?" a nurse yells from somewhere, frantically rushing over to her.

"It's fine, my teammate healed me," Blake replied, smiling.

"Is that why she's unconscious?" the nurse asks, pointing to Weiss. Blake nods. "Right. Okay. Maybe we should take the cast off then."

"Maybe," Blake agrees, nodding.

Half an hour later, Blake and I enter our apartment and I remember the events that transpired last time we were there. The riot squads are gone, but the window is still shattered. Ignoring that, we head to bed for some much-needed rest. We realise how exhausted we are and don't even bother changing, or taking our clothes off for that matter, and embrace each other as we drift off to sleep.

**A/N: Two chapters in two days! Yay! This one's even 50% longer than average! Anyway, thanks for reading. Cinder's death was planned since the very beginning. Also, if you're wondering why I had the whole healing spell thing instead of just letting Blake recover properly, you'll find out next chapter ;) So, like I said in the last A/N, the story is far from over. Cinder, as you might have gathered from Raven's story waaaay back in chapter 2, is (or was) only the beginning. Really, it's like taking down a captain on the battlefield while the general is still around. You're just slowing the bad guys down a bit. Anyway, leave a review and follow/favourite if you wish. **


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